Drunk bar worker jailed for causing fatal crash with seven people in hatchback
Former boarding school pupil Karla Dodds had previously survived a fatal crash in which she was a passenger.
A drunk bar worker who killed a friend in a crash when she was carrying six passengers in her small hatchback has been jailed for 12 years.
Former boarding school pupil Karla Dodds, 25, had previously survived a fatal crash in which she was a passenger when she caused the death by dangerous driving of Truman Hub in November 2022.
Newcastle Crown Court heard she had not learned her lesson almost exactly two years after the tragic collision when she was stopped by police for speeding and was found to be twice over the limit for cannabis.
Dodds was convicted of causing her 22-year-old school friend’s death by dangerous driving following a trial.
She had finished a shift at a Whitley Bay bar and later went to a nightclub where she claimed to have drunk two glasses of wine and two tequila shots.
Dodds then offered to drive friends, including Mr Hub, to a party and crammed six others into her Hyundai i10, with one person in the boot and four on the back seat.
Mr Hub stuck his head out of a rear window to feel the wind in his hair shortly before the fatal collision with a lamppost which caused the hatchback to flip over on the A191 near North Tyneside General Hospital.
Dodds, from Links Avenue, Whitley Bay, fled the scene leaving Mr Hub fatally injured.
When she was arrested a breath test showed she was twice over the legal drink drive limit.
Police video showed her repeatedly ask “who’s dead?” when she was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.
Judge Roger Thomas KC said she was “highly intoxicated” when she was behind the wheel, had been driving too fast and was convicted “on the back of overwhelming evidence”.
He said it was loud in the car, people were singing and the front seat passenger had asked her to slow down before she crashed.
Judge Thomas said Dodds’ conviction and disqualification for drug driving after the fatal crash were also telling.
He said: “Everything about the case shows self-pity rather than true remorse.”
He jailed her for 12 years and banned her from driving for 13 years and nine months.
James Doyle, defending, said Dodds had wanted to train to become a nurse.
She had been a gifted runner and rugby sevens player and had attended Millfield School for a year but had grown homesick.
He said she was a “warm-hearted and kindly soul”, adding: “She has her issues like everyone else on this planet and she was and is a live-wire.”
Mr Doyle said she has acknowledged she must change and “seek calmer waters within herself”.
When he claimed that she felt remorse, the judge said there was no evidence to support that, replying: “She left the scene and ran away, she did her best to get away with it.”
In a victim statement read for her in court, Mr Hub’s grieving mother Rozalind said: “Truman was full of sunshine, laughter, mischief and love whose presence would light up any room.”
She called Dodds’ decision to run away from the crash “wicked and cowardly”.
Referring to the previous fatal accident which Dodds survived, Ms Tub said: “I thought that she would have learned her lesson when she was a passenger in a fatal car accident a few years earlier.”
She added: “I think it is only natural that we feel hostile, anger and even hatred towards Miss Dodds, we can never forgive her for cutting our son’s life so short.”
Speaking outside court, Sergeant Dave Roberts, who led the police inquiry, said: “Dodds’ actions to drive under the influence and in such dangerous conditions – cramming six passengers into her small vehicle after a night out – has ultimately led to Truman losing his life.
“Not only that but Dodds has demonstrated her lack of remorse after what happened, having been caught drug driving while waiting for her trial date at court.
“She was convicted in January of this year having been found to be driving under the influence of drugs last November, just two years on.
“While no result will ever take away the pain that has been caused, I hope the fact that Dodds will spend a significant period of time in prison will help to bring a sense of closure for the family.
“A split decision to drive while under the influence can clearly ruin countless lives forever – and there is simply no excuse for putting other people at risk.”
