A 19-year-old woman has been locked up after ploughing her car into a teenager playing rugby in a South Wales car park.
Speeding Fiat Hits Teen Playing Rugby
Lexi Dyas was admitted to dangerous driving causing serious injury after she drove her Fiat 500 at excessive speed and struck 19-year-old Declan Mahoney in a nearly empty Mountain Ash car park in July 2024.
The court heard Dyas was distracted, chatting to a friend, and failed to concentrate. Dyas claimed she thought Declan ran away from the car before the collision.
“She didn’t have a grudge against Declan at all,” prosecutor Andrew Davies said. “She said she thought Declan had run the opposite way, and the next thing she knew, she hit him.”
Teen Suffered Multiple Fractures
Declan tried to dodge the car, but Dyas swerved and hit him, sending him airborne. He needed hospital treatment for multiple fractures to his arm, leg, and finger.
In a victim impact statement, Declan revealed that the crash has left him struggling with everyday tasks and too nervous to leave his house.
“It has had a big impact on every aspect of my life. I’m nervous to leave the house,” he said.
Judge Slams ‘Excessive Speed’ and Hands Jail Sentence
Judge Recorder Christian Jowett sentenced Dyas to 18 months behind bars and banned her from driving for two years and nine months.
Defence lawyer Emma Harris said Dyas, from Mountain Ash and hoping to become a nurse, “feels terrible” about the injuries caused.
“You used excessive speed when you drove deliberately and directly at Mr Mahoney,” the judge told Dyas during sentencing.
