Drink driver jailed over Cardiff crash that left passengers with permanent injuries
Elliot Lucas got behind the wheel while more then twice the legal limit
A 20 year old drink driver who crashed a car containing six passengers in Cardiff has been jailed.
Elliot Lucas, from Llantwit Major, was more than twice the legal drink-drive limit when he crashed his Fiat Punto on the A4232 in Cardiff in September last year.
The majority of Lucas' passengers didn’t know he had been drinking, and pleaded with him to slow down after he was ‘showing off’.
Shortly afterwards he lost control of the car, clipping the kerb of the central reservation. The car then collided with a tree and burst into flames with one of the passengers left trapped inside.
Emergency services managed to free the woman from the car and she was taken to hospital.
The other passengers suffered an array of permanent injuries, leaving one of them in a wheelchair for two weeks after the crash.
In a victim impact statement one of the injured passengers said, "This collision would never have taken place if Elliot decided not to get behind the wheel of a car while drunk.
"My injuries, physically and mentally, will stay with me for the rest of my life."
Lucas was breathalysed at the scene and gave a reading of 92mcg, the legal limit is 35mcg.
He later pleaded guilty to four counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
Lucas was sentenced to three years and four months.
He was also disqualified from driving for eight years and eight months