An American mystery man who fled the UK after causing a 70mph horror crash that left a nurse unable to walk, has been jailed for 32 months following extradition.
Isaac Calderon, 23, admitted his driving was “definitely not safe” and that he was vaping prior to the smash that shattered the ankles and sternum of his victim Elizabeth Donowho.
Dashcam footage played to Worcester Crown Court showed Calderon losing control of his Honda Accord after a high-speed overtaking manoeuvre, crashing head-on into a Mercedes being driven by mental health nurse Ms Donowho.
Texas-born Calderon, who was 22 at the time of the incident, pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to causing serious injury by driving a Honda Accord dangerously on July 31 last year near Shucknall in Herefordshire.
Passing sentence on Calderon, who appeared in court via a video-link to HMP Hewell, Judge Martin Jackson told him: “Seven days before this accident you had bought a car and had not taken the trouble to make sure that it carried insurance.
“It was the sort of driving one expects from arrogant young boy racers. This was an appalling piece of driving.”
Mystery surrounds exactly who Mr Calderon was working for after Ms Donowho was told by police that he’d been visiting the British special forces base (SAS) in Herefordshire when the crash happened nearby last summer.
Ms Donowho, of Malvern, Worcestershire, previously revealed that West Mercia Police said Calderon had been working on matters “that might come under the Official Secrets Act”.
However, he was later described by the US embassy as a “private citizen” and is understood to not have diplomatic immunity.
Texan court documents also appeared to include a copy of Mr Calderon’s US “Uniformed Services” identification card, but he said that at the time of the crash he was travelling for “personal activities”.
The judge was yesterday told Calderon worked for an American company in Peterborough as an interpreter with his lawyer insisting his client had not been in the UK “as an American Army official of any sort”.
He said he was merely driving along the A4103 between Worcester and Hereford to meet a gaming friend he had met online.
Calderon failed to appear before magistrates in Kidderminster last November accused of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and a warrant for his arrest was issued in December, but he had already flown back to the US. He was extradited earlier this year.
The judge, who also handed Calderon a two-year driving ban to be served after his release, telling him: “It was your hands on the steering wheel. It was your foot on the accelerator and it was your mind deciding to make those dangerous manoeuvres.
“It is troubling that instead of attending the first magistrates’ court date you chose to return to America rather than face the music.
Ms Donowho, 56, who was on her way home from working at a hospital in unit in Hereford, has yet to return to work due to the far-reaching consequences of the crash, which happened on a wet road surface in a 50mph zone.
The case closely mirrors that of Harry Dunn, a teenage motorcyclist who was killed by Anne Sacoolas, a US citizen, in 2019.
Sacoolas, who had been driving on the wrong side of the road, claimed diplomatic immunity after the fatal crash and fled to the US. She was finally handed a suspended sentence in December 2022 for causing death by careless driving but was never extradited.
