Driver took cocaine at wheel before horror roundabout crash

Tyler Lee Cornish, aged 22, was warned to slow down and that he “was not a Formula One driver” as he gave three people a lift home from their night out in Bournemouth.

Bournemouth Crown Court heard he performed a concerning overtake, he was speeding and he was swerving across road markings before the crash at Tower Park Roundabout, Poole.

Cornish took both hands off the wheel several times, with him taking cocaine on one occasion.

The 18-year-old female backseat passenger had to undergo CPR at the scene of the crash before being rushed to hospital in a critical condition.

Cornish, of Cinnamon Lane, Poole, pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving and two counts of drug driving. He was jailed for three years by Judge Jonathan Fuller KC.

Tyler Cornish, 22 and of Poole, has been jailed (Image: Dorset Police)

The judge said: “You were behaving quite rationally and reasonably in offering these people a lift.

“Thereafter you chose to endanger them by taking cocaine or disregarded the danger you had put them in.”

Prosecuting, Samantha Ball said the female victim had finished a night out in Bournemouth town centre with two male friends and they were offered a lift by the defendant, who they knew, on November 21 last year.

The court heard they had considered getting a taxi but had no concerns about being passengers in Cornish’s car.

Initially the driving was “satisfactory” but it soon changed with excessive speed, swerving on the road across road markings, an overtaking manoeuvre which “unsettled those in the car.

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Cornish removed both hands from the steering wheel on multiple occasions, which led to the front seat passenger to reach over and take hold of the wheel.

“The defendant removed his hands in order to remove some white powder from his pockets and then used it by ingesting it into his nose while driving,” Ms Ball said.

Both backseat passengers, including the victim, gave warnings to Cornish about his driving, including saying he was “not a Formula One driver” and they thought he should slow down.

The court heard the defendant laughed when these concerns were raised.

“The defendant collided with the central reservation near the Tower Park Roundabout,” Ms Ball said.

“This caused the car to go into the air and to land in the middle of the roundabout.”

Both backseat passengers were knocked out before the male came round and tried to remove the victim from the car.

At this point an off-duty paramedic came across the scene and stepped in to provide help.

“She received significant life-threatening injuries,” Ms Ball said. “The off-duty paramedic had to perform CPR.

“She was taken to Poole Hospital but later moved to the trauma unit at Southampton General Hospital.”

The court heard the woman had multiple spinal fractures, a bleed on the brain, a fractured skull, jaw, and ribs, with her spending several days in an induced coma in intensive care.

In a statement written six months after the crash, the victim said: “This accident has shattered me in every single way.”

She said she lost all of her independence and she was unable to stay in her job.

Providing an update ahead of the sentencing hearing, she said: “It is too early to say why my future holds but to date it is most definitely put a pause on my life.”

Cornish provided a specimen which contained 32 micrograms of cocaine per litre of blood and more than 800 micrograms of benzoylecgonine - the main metabolite of cocaine, per litre of blood. The specified limits for these drugs is 10 micrograms for cocaine and 50 micrograms for benzoylecgonine.

Nick Robinson, mitigating, said the defendant had no recollection of the incident.

He said Cornish had severely struggled since the crash over the impact his actions had on someone he saw as a friend.

Mr Robinson said it was believed his client had undiagnosed bipolar.

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In the months leading up to the incident, he took cocaine as a coping mechanism as he struggled with the pressures of his management job at Rockley Park and his long-term relationship came to an end, Mr Robinson said.

Cornish was described as “extremely vulnerable” by his mother. She said he was now clean from drugs and had been living with a new partner since the start of the year.

“The reality is that this defendant is genuinely remorseful in my respectful submission and there has been a degree of deserved punishment,” Mr Robinson said.

Judge Fuller KC said evidence given to police by one of the male passengers described Cornish’s driving as “downright dangerous and reckless”.

Cornish, who the judge found was impaired by the drugs he had consumed, was disqualified from driving for four years and six months.

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