A 'DEATH wish' driver who had binged on drink and drugs after gambling in a city pub was speeding at close to twice the limit when he killed two women and a child in a fatal crash.
Joe-Lewis Tyler showed no emotion in the dock of Worcester Crown Court when he was jailed for 18 years for causing the three deaths by dangerous driving on the A44 in Spetchley, near Worcester.
The public gallery was packed with the family and friends of the victims and other parts of the court had to be opened up during the sentence, pronounced by Judge James Burbidge KC.
Tyler was told he must serve at least thirds of the sentence before being considered for parole and was banned from driving for 17 years. Victim personal statements were also read out in court.
The 34-year-old, who was over the limit for alcohol and cocaine and cannabis metabolites, was speeding at around 90mph on flooded roads with expired insurance when he ploughed into a taxi pulling out of a junction during the incident at around 3.09pm on Monday, February 22.
Tyler was behind the wheel of a BMW 3 series when he crashed into the white Ford Mondeo taxi, killing Leo Painter, six, Claire Adkins, 39, and driver, Courtney Hemming, 26 who all suffered multiple injuries.
Tyler himself was badly injured in the crash, spending three weeks in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, suffering a broken shin and ankle and requiring spinal surgery.
His passenger, Miles Smith-Green, also suffered serious injuries including a damaged spleen and dislocated hip.
Simon Phillips, prosecuting, played CCTV clips and dashcam footage of Tyler's fast and erratic driving before the crash.
He said Tyler had been drinking in the West Midlands Tavern in Worcester, winning £100 on the fruit machines as he and his friend each drank five pints of lager and four shots - Sambuca and Jägerbombs.
Because they were being so loud they were encouraged to leave by the landlord and the pair left and headed in the BMW towards Badsey, near Evesham, with neither said to be wearing a seatbelt.
Tyler was driving at 90mph in a 50mph road when the crash happened. Later blood tests placed Tyler's blood alcohol level at between 103 and 215 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood (the legal limit being 80) with an average reading of 159.
He was also over the limit for cocaine with a reading of 55 microgrammes per litre of blood (above the limit of 10 microgrammes) and cannabis with a reading of 2.2 microgrammes for delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (a cannabis metabolite), above the limit of 2 microgrammes.
Mr Phillips said witnesses described Tyler's driving as 'erratic' and he span the car on a roundabout in Plantation Drive in Warndon Villages shortly before the fatal crash.
One driver said he was travelling so fast she was 'fearful for her safety' and 'could not believe how fast the BMW was going', estimating it was travelling at 90mph and the speed even buffeted her car.
Another witness described how the car nearly hit hers at around 100mph, comparing it to a 'near death experience'. Another driver said the person behind the wheel of the BMW was 'driving like an idiot' and another that he was driving like he had a 'death wish'.
The insurance for the BMW, which had been lent to the defendant, had expired approximately 90 minutes before the crash.
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Mr Phillips said in interview Tyler said 'he didn't know how the accident occurred' and could remember nothing until he was in the MRI machine in hospital.
"He said he was not driving dangerously," said Mr Phillips. Tyler, who made his comments in a prepared statement, then answered no comment to all further questions.
Adam Western, defending, said Tyler's best mitigation was his guilty plea and he recognised he was 'to blame for the devastation he has caused'
He added:" I make it plain, the only victims are the people killed or injured and their many loved ones."
Mr Western said Tyler, who is himself a father of a girl of six, had expressed his 'deep sense of shame and regret'.
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