Gabrielle Dures (Image: Merseyside Police)
A drink driver smashed her Audi into another vehicle at double the speed limit, leaving a woman with life-altering injuries and several others wounded. Gabrielle Dures, 24, was behind the wheel of an Audi A1 that collided head-on with a Fiat 500 on Coastal Drive, New Brighton, on the evening of Sunday, May 28, 2023.
Despite pleas from her terrified passengers to slow down, Dures, who had been consuming shots, sped on and crashed into the Fiat at 63mph, causing severe injuries to occupants in both vehicles. Sentencing Dures, now a trainee pharmacist, Judge David Potter told Liverpool Crown Court that her possible desire to impress her new friends in the back of her car “did not matter”, but what did matter was her panicking passengers telling her to slow down.
Her defence lawyer John Weate informed the court that Dures, then 22, had only been discharged by her hospital consultant three weeks prior after seven years of radiotherapy for a rare brain tumour and had been advised “to go out and enjoy her life and that is what she intended to do”. He added: “She had had a restricted social life until that point. She went out to make new friends. She wanted to socialise and wanted to move on with her life.”
The court heard she had been drinking in The Lighthouse pub in Wallasey on the evening of the crash with her friend Megan Findlay.
They and three new friends decided to move to the James Atherton pub in New Brighton, reports the Liverpool Echo.
Gabrielle Dures (Image: Gabrielle Dures/Facebook)
CCTV footage captured her leaving a pub at 9.30pm, glass in hand, which she finished and discarded before getting into her grey Audi A1 with Ms Findlay in the front seat and Stevie Garrity, Sophie Ford and Renee Hunt in the back. Prosecutor Holly Menary stated: “She assured them she was fine to drive and would drive them to the next bar. Ms Findlay asked if she was okay and she assured her she was and Ms Garrity suggested getting a taxi. But she repeated she was okay.”
The video showed the car speeding towards the exit, causing Ms Ford to exclaim “whoa”.
Dures then turned right and sped towards Coastal Drive. Neither Ms Ford nor Ms Garrity had fastened their seat belts, but as fear set in, Ms Ford managed to buckle up, though Ms Garrity didn’t have time.
As they passed a parked camper van, the Audi collided head-on with an oncoming Fiat. The road has a 30mph limit and the Fiat’s driver, Kiera Ord, believed she was safe to overtake as the Audi was some distance away.
However, realising it was closing in quickly, she braked as hard as she could, but the collision was inevitable.
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Quick-thinking Joseph Thurlow was among the passers-by who rushed to aid Ms Garrity, with Judge David Potter praising his swift first aid response as life-saving. Police arrived on the scene within five minutes to find Dures slurring her words and with glazed eyes.
Despite denying she had been drinking, she expressed concern for the passengers in both vehicles. A subsequent hospital blood test revealed she was nearly one and a half times over the drink-drive limit, with 114 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood – the legal limit being 80mg.
The court heard that the most severely injured was Ms Garrity, now 25, whose right arm was so badly damaged she almost faced amputation. She also sustained a fractured leg and two spinal fractures.
In a heart-wrenching impact statement read out to the packed courtroom, Ms Garrity detailed how her life has been shattered. She described herself as having been “confident, hard working, smiley, organised and had a plan for her future”, but said that fateful night had irrevocably altered her life and she is “grieving the person I once was.”
Ms Garrity informed the court she has undergone four six-hour operations and faces two more.
She stated: “The first operation was to save my life”, explaining she was haemorrhaging from the artery in her arm.
Ms Garrity, still donning a compression bandage and splints on her hand and arm, has recounted the enduring chronic nerve pain that prevents her from returning to her cherished role at the National Autistic Society and her part-time pub job. Meanwhile, Ria Islam, who suffered tremendously as the front seat passenger in the Fiat, has been left with two metal rods in her broken back and wracked with body-wide pain.
In a harrowing statement, Ms Islam recalled how she was trapped in the wreckage, fearing death was imminent.
Ms Findlay sustained injuries to her left thigh and student midwife Ms Hunt endured a fractured spine along with liver bleeding. Ms Ford’s neck was tender, while Ms Ord’s fractured right wrist necessitated both surgery and physiotherapy.
Even now, Ms Ord speaks of the “immense pain” that utterly transformed her life.
In the dock, Dures accepted responsibility for her actions, pleading guilty to four counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving. Overcome with emotion during proceedings, she wiped away tears.
Mr Weate emphasised that Dures is buoyed by the support of her family and friends and noted her charitable contributions to the homeless community and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital – the institution where she received treatment for her brain tumour.
He stated that she entered a guilty plea at the earliest opportunity, as she had not wanted the victims to even consider testifying. He read a statement from the defendant, who expressed her “deepest remorse” for the accident and the pain and suffering it has caused to the victims and their families.
She stated: “Not a day has gone by since that night that I have not thought about the consequences of my actions and the ongoing suffering faced by all involved due to an error of judgement on my behalf.
“I take full responsibility and accountability for the events that unfolded that night …..On the evening of May 28 I never intentionally set out to cause any harm however I fully recognise that my actions have had devastating consequences. My decision making that night was a terrible mistake and one that was completely out of character for me.
“I can only imagine the grief and distress that the girls and their families are experiencing and continue to experience and for that I am whole heartedly sorry.”
Dures said that her actions that night “will weigh heavy on me for the rest of my life and this is something that I have accepted as part of my punishment.”
Mr Weate said that at the time of the crash, she was a student teacher, and the incident, which followed “intoxication and bravado, maybe to impress her new friends” forced her to abandon her planned career, and she is now a trainee pharmacist. The court heard that the victim sustained two broken ribs and a fractured wrist, requiring surgical intervention, as well as psychological trauma, including insomnia and nightmares, as a result of the crash.
Judge Potter sentenced Dures to two years and eight months in prison and disqualified her from driving for 31 months. During the sentencing, he told her: “I have no doubt you feel remorse, shame and guilty for your actions. You have not sought to blame anyone else for the terrible decision you, and you alone, made that night.”
In a previous magistrates’ court hearing, Dures pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol and received a £253 fine, £221 in costs and surcharge, as well as a 14-month driving ban set to expire next week.
For those affected by serious road incidents, Aftermath Support, a North West charity, offers help and support. Contact them at 0151 777 2562 or email support@aftermathsupport.org.uk for further information.