Jailed: ‘Reckless’ Land Rover Driver Who Paralysed Young Sisters In Road Rage Crash
A “reckless” Land Rover driver who paralysed two sisters after smashing into their father’s car has been jailed for four-and-a-half years.
Andrew Nay drove into the family’s Vaxhall while making an “absolutely ridiculous” right hand turn near Welingborough, Northamptonshire on October 3 last year.
Karlina Raiba, eight, and her sister Katrina, six, both suffered spinal cord injuries which have left them paralysed from the waist down.
Footage of the A509 crash was caught on the family’s dashcam, which was played in court.
Nay, of Harrier Close, Weldon, Corby, was seen pulling right across a junction in his company Land Rover Discovery, straight into the path of the victims’ Vauxhall Signum.
Northampton Crown Court heard that the Jaguar Land Rover manager was tailgating and “bullying” a woman driving a Mazda people carrier before the smash happened.
He admitted four counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, but denied chasing the Mazda before the crash.
Crash: The family’s dashcam revealed the full horror of what happened (PA)
Judge Adrienne Lucking QC rejected Nay’s testimony, ruling that he crashed while chasing the Mazda.
Describing the evidence against Nay as overwhelming, Judge Lucking said he had “harried” the people carrier after being prevented from leaving a roundabout on the A14.
The judge told Nay: “I have heard evidence from a series of witnesses travelling in the same direction as the Land Rover.
"In each case their evidence was given in measured terms, without exaggeration. By contrast I found the defendant’s evidence unconvincing and inconsistent.
Guilty: Andrew Nay has been sentenced to four years and six-months in prison (PA)
"This was a prolonged, persistent and deliberate course of very bad driving. No sentence I can pass will ever feel like enough for this family.”
Addressing Nay, she said: “You maintained an account that was incredible and inconsistent.”
The venue manager, who has worked for Land Rover as a lead off-road driving instructor, was seen laughing and smiling with his passenger moments before Katrina and Karlina Raiba, then aged five and eight, suffered life-changing injuries.
In evidence to his trial, Nay said he had noticed “nothing in particular” during his journey, and was turning towards a garden centre in his three-litre Land Rover Discovery 4.
Devastated: Karlina and Katrina’s parents, Roberts and Renate (PA)
Karlina and Katrina’s parents, Roberts Raibais and Renate Raiba, said their lives had been “completely shattered” by Nay’s actions and that no sentence would be enough.
The couple, originally from Latvia, suffered broken bones in the crash. They said in a statement: “Andrew Nay’s reckless actions had devastating consequences for our two beautiful daughters.
"Katrina and Karlina were happy, active children and he has robbed them of that. We will never be able to forgive him.
"Every day they ask ‘when will we start feeling our legs again?’ They think it’s going to get better and it’s too hard to tell them.”
