A Range Rover driver who was high on a cocktail of 10 drugs when he smashed head on into a car coming the other way is this week starting a 28-month jail sentence for causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
Shocking dashcam footage of Matthew Button’s driving prior to the crash on the A431 near Bath was played at Bristol Crown Court on Monday 5th January.
The court also watched the moment of impact as captured on the dashcam of the car that the victim Charlotte Waddell was driving.
She is heard to gasp as Button’s vehicle violently crashes into hers. The footage ends abruptly.
Ms Waddell, who lost consciousness in the collision, suffered multiple injuries including a bleed on the brain, lacerated spleen, cervical and lumbar spinal injuries, fractured ribs, a deep laceration to her knee and seatbelt burns.
Walking with the aid of a stick, the mother-of-three was in court on Monday to hear His Honour Judge Edward Burgess KC send 37-year-old Button to jail and ban him from driving for more than five years.
Button, from Downfield in Keynsham, had pleaded guilty at Bath Magistrates’ Court in November to five charges in relation to the collision which happened on 2nd June last year and closed the road for several hours.
Button had been heading towards Bristol and Ms Waddell had been travelling in the opposite direction.
Button admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving, two drug-driving offences and two offences of possessing controlled drugs.
Analysis of his blood following his arrest found benzoylecgonine – a metabolite of cocaine – present at 280 micrograms per litre. The legal limit is 50 micrograms.
He was also found to have 2.7 micrograms of the drug Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol – the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis – per litre of his blood, exceeding the specified limit which is two.
He was in possession of Alprazolam and Pregablin, both Class C drugs.
A pre-sentence report had been ordered by magistrates who committed Button to Bristol Crown Court on unconditional bail and imposed an interim driving ban.
In court on Monday prosecutor Ben Jones said that the Range Rover Evoque had been seen repeatedly crossing into the other lane including on bends. It mounted a kerb and at one stage hit a hedge but carried on.
The dashcam recording from a vehicle behind the Evoque captured not only the dangerous driving but the growing fear in the voice of one of the occupants as she predicted he would end up crashing.
Following the collision, which completely blocked the road near the South Gloucestershire border, a clearly intoxicated Button can be seen getting out of his car and staggering around.
At the start of Monday’s court proceedings, Bartholomew Scholefield, defending Button, asked the judge for an adjournment. He said the pre-sentence report had said there should be an assessment by the DHI (Developing Health & Independence) team to see if Button was suitable for a drug rehabilitation requirement and mental health treatment requirement, but Button had not attended those appointments as he had not received notification. However, the judge refused to delay sentencing.
Ms Waddell had given two victim statements, which were read out in court by Mr Jones. Following the crash she underwent a major operation on her vertebrae and spent three months in a cervical collar.
She had also suffered significant nerve damage to her right arm and her surgeon has said it is too early to know the long-term prognosis.
She has limited movement in her neck, and her physiotherapist has said she may not get full movement back. Her balance and coordination are poor.
Ms Waddell can recall little about the impact but spoke of her gratitude that she had survived it and had not been paralysed.
She also highlighted her loss of independence and the pain she continues to suffer; she is reliant on family for childcare, support and lifts and is concerned about the impact on her partner who is now having to care for her. She also feels anxious when travelling in a car as a passenger now.
Ms Waddell also revealed her emotional turmoil and that while she is “extremely angry and upset”, she can’t help but feel some compassion for the repercussions Button might face.
Mr Scholefield told the court that Button, who has three unrelated previous convictions and a caution for Class A drugs in 2011, is “incredibly remorseful” and “haunted” by the injuries he caused Ms Waddell, both physical and mental.
He wants to take part in the restorative justice process and has written to her; it is up to her whether she engages with that process.
Button had a difficult upbringing and had endured childhood trauma, said Mr Scholefield. Both his parents were heroin addicts; his mother had overcome her addiction but had a relationship with a man who abused her, him and his siblings. Button himself had been taking drugs from the age of 13.
At the time of the collision, Button was self-medicating and had 10 drugs in his system. Eight were for anxiety medication or had a sedative effect and he was above the legal limit for two of them.
Mr Scholefield added that the drugs he had taken had altered his perception of what normal feels like.
The court heard that three years ago Button had been working in landscaping but had severed a tendon in his hand which meant he had not been able to work since.
He had lost three close relatives, including his grandmother who helped to raise him, which had exacerbated his already fragile mental health.
Mr Scholefield said Button has been proactive in addressing his drug use but has still been taking cannabis.
Sentencing Button, HH Judge Burgess KC described the dashcam footage as “quite shocking” and as the witness in the car behind had predicted, it was inevitable that there would be a crash.
He praised Ms Waddell’s eloquence in acknowledging how she feels “deeply conflicted” regarding Button. He noted the defendant’s difficult upbringing but said that at 37 he is “a fully grown adult” and must take responsibility for his actions.
For causing serious injury by dangerous driving, Matthew Button was jailed for 28 months. He can expect to serve 40% of that in prison, with the remainder of his sentence served “on licence” with conditions.
He was banned from driving for five years and two months and must take an extended test before he is allowed behind the wheel again.
For each of the two offences of driving while over the controlled drugs limit, Button was jailed for three months to run concurrently.
There was no separate penalty for the possession of the drugs found in his car, but the judge ordered their forfeiture and destruction.
As Button is in receipt of benefits, the judge did not order compensation, saying any award would “effectively be derisory”.
He was ordered to pay a surcharge of £228, but no order was made for Crown Prosecution Service costs.
Following the sentencing, the judge told Ms Waddell: “I wish you well with your recovery.”
