A drink driver whose car crashed into a ditch and plunged beneath the water, killing his best friend, has been spared prison.
Liam Beaumont, 24, lost control of the Renault Clio on an ‘S’ bend on the B1222 near Sherburn-in-Elmet after allegedly “racing” with another friend, York Crown Court heard.
The vehicle overturned and plunged into the water in Bishop Dyke, trapping him and his passenger Luke Clarke, 21, who drowned.
Beaumont – who, moments before the accident had been overtaken by his other friend Kian Wallis, 23, who was driving a white Citroen van – was trapped inside the car, unconscious, for a “very significant period of time”, but survived after “coming to, in the dark, in the water”, and finding an air pocket.
His best mate Luke, who was also trapped, couldn’t reach the same air space and, despite the efforts of Wallis and witnesses to pull him out, drowned in the ditch water just two days after Christmas.
Prosecutor James Lake said that prior to the accident on December 27, 2021, Beaumont, Wallis and Luke – known as “The Three Musketeers” because they were so close – had travelled to Cawood from their home town of Barnsley where they met a friend for a drink at the Jolly Sailor pub at about 6pm.
They left the pub at about 10.30pm when Beaumont started revving the Clio’s engine “loudly” before reversing “erratically” out of King Street near the Ferry Inn, then drove onto the high street, where it was “weaving” and struck a kerb.
He then sped out of the village, at one point on the wrong side of the road, as three witnesses had to “hurry across the road” to avoid being struck by the vehicle near the Jolly Sailor.
The Clio and Wallis’s Citroen were “about 15 seconds apart” as they sped out of the village along the B1222 and headed towards Sherburn where a male motorist was waiting at the junction of Scalm Lane.
Through the “drizzle and low-lying mist”, he could see two vehicles heading towards him on the winding country road.
“He thought they were driving too fast for the road, so waited until they passed,” said Mr Lake.
He said the Clio was in front of Wallis’s van and that there was just a “car length” between the two vehicles which were “travelling far too close to each other”.
“(The motorist) pulled out to follow them and saw the white van overtake the Renault at a shallow ‘S’ bend in the road ahead,” added Mr Lake.
There were no eyewitnesses to what happened next, but a forensic road-crash investigator produced a reconstruction of events which led to Luke’s tragic death.
“From analysis of the scene he concluded that the Citroen van negotiated the bend, with the Renault very close behind,” added Mr Lake.
While the Citroen came out of the bend as the road straightened, the Renault driven by Beaumont “continued to turn through the bend and began to oversteer”. The vehicle began to spin and plunged down an embankment into the dyke.
The Renault struck the dyke on its offside and overturned, causing water to flood into the car. Wallis, who had lost sight of the Renault in his rearview mirror, reversed back to the crash site.
“Mr Wallis found the overturned Renault in the dyke and tried to free Liam Beaumont and Luke,” said Mr Lake.
Unable to pull his friends out of the partially submerged vehicle, Wallis went looking for help and alerted residents living in one of the remote properties nearby. They called the emergency services, and a man and his son drove out to the crash site in a utility vehicle and tried to pull the Renault out of the dyke with a tow strap.
A short time later, police officers arrived and tried to get into the upturned Renault but the doors were still jammed shut.
The fire service arrived and took over the rescue effort. They managed to get Beaumont out of the vehicle. They finally managed to free Luke through the tailgate.
They performed cardio-pulmonary resuscitation on Luke but couldn’t revive him. Beaumont was heard to say: “I’ve killed my mate.”
Luke, a self-employed joiner who lived in Goldthorpe near Barnsley, was pronounced dead at the scene and the cause of death was drowning.
Wallis, of Springfield Crescent, Darfield, near Barnsley, was arrested on suspicion of drink-driving. A breath test showed he was just under twice the legal limit.
Beaumont, who was taken to hospital with serious injuries, was arrested the following morning on suspicion of driving while unfit through drink or drugs.
A drink-drive test revealed he had 90mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood. The legal alcohol limit is 80mg. The test also revealed traces of cocaine and cannabis.
Beaumont and Wallis were each charged with, and ultimately admitted, causing death by careless driving while over the prescribed alcohol limit.
Following his arrest, Beaumont, of Ancona Rise Darfield, denied that he and Wallis had been racing in the moments before the crash.
They appeared for sentence today when the court heard that both men were on community orders at the time after being convicted of inflicting grievous bodily harm and actual bodily harm on two men in a taxi rank in Barnsley town centre.
In a statement read out in court packed with family of all parties, Luke’s mum Claire Clarke said that she and his father’s lives “will never be the same”.
“Part of us died with Luke that day,” she added.
“His grandparents feel as though their precious grandchild has been snatched out of their hands at 21 years of age.”
She said that Luke and Beaumont, who studied joinery together at college, were “inseparable” and “like brothers”. They would go on holiday together, go for walks with their dogs, play snooker and go fishing.
She said Luke met Wallis through Beaumont and “we called them The Three Musketeers”.
She added: “I know Liam (Beaumont) is tortured every day. We know that is the biggest punishment of all.
“He has only just lost his best friend. He has lost a brother too: that’s how close they were. We don’t blame Liam for this tragedy.”
Richard Wright KC, for Beaumont, said: “This was Christmas and three best friends went for a night out.
“Liam Beaumont lost his best friend and he knows that his best friend died because of his driving.”
Beaumont, who is also a joiner, had since suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and had received counselling since “this dreadful incident”.
Wallis’s solicitor advocate Graham Parkin said his client, who worked as a carpet fitter, accepted that “by overtaking (Beaumont’s vehicle) it was effectively encouraging his friend to drive more quickly”.
Judge Simon Hickey said that Beaumont and Wallis were “driving too quickly for the (wet) conditions” after spending about four-and-a-half hours in the pub.
He told Beaumont: “Clearly, you were knocked unconscious and came to, in the dark, in the water, knowing you had caused the death of a very dear friend, probably your best friend.”
He added, however, that Beaumont’s remorse was obviously genuine and “a lot has passed since (the accident)”.
“Life has radically changed (for you) due to this tragedy,” said Mr Hickey.
“I don’t find that it is necessary to send you, at your age, to custody.”
Beaumont received a 20-month prison sentence, but this was suspended for 18 months because of his “strong mitigation”.
As part of that sentence, Beaumont will have to complete 20 rehabilitation-activity days and 150 hours of unpaid work. He was banned from driving for two-and-a-half years.
Mr Hickey said that Wallis’s driving on the ‘S’ bend, while “just over the threshold for careless”, was not technically an “unsafe manoeuvre” and he remained on the correct side of the road.
He said Wallis had changed and matured since the days when he was “punching people in a taxi queue” and “out of control”.
Wallis was given a two-year suspended prison sentence with 20 rehabilitation-activity days and a thinking-skills programme. He received a three-year driving ban.