A COUPLE has opened up about the devastating effects a dangerous driver had on their lives.
The Leader reported last week how Jimmy Carey, of Howard Court in Neston, appeared at Mold Crown Court for sentence for three counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
The court heard the 37-year-old had led police on a dangerous high-speed chase, in October last year, which ended when he tried to overtake a vehicle on the Jubilee Bridge in Flintshire.
He collided head-on with a taxi, leaving its driver and his two customers with serious injuries.
Florin Dumea, 34, was the driver of that taxi. He and his wife Tracy, who live in Garden City, told the Leader about the impact of the crime and their view on the 32-month custodial sentence Carey received.
Tracy, 51, said: "I'm gutted - my husband is here doing a life sentence. He's the one in pain every night.
"He hasn't had a full night's sleep since the crash.
"And my health's gone downhill too. I had to give up two jobs to look after him.
"I was on anti-depressants. I couldn't cope. My head just went.
"We had to sort everything out and go on benefits. I needed help with everything.
Recalling the incident itself, Florin said: "I started work at 5pm, and I went to this job, picked up the customers and as I passed the traffic lights going onto the bridge - it happened.
"I just saw light, and then I lost consciousness for ten seconds.
"The next minute a police officer is telling me I've been involved in a crash.
"I heard my passengers screaming when I came round.
"We were trapped in the car for around three hours, and my door and the back right door needed to be cut off.
READ MORE: Dangerous driver jailed after bridge horror crash which left three seriously injured
"I was just thinking of my family. My wife and stepdaughter were sleeping and I was thinking about how they were going to be told. I was scared."
Tracy added: "I didn't find out until about 5.30am, when police came to my door.
"They said he'd been involved in an accident and when they came in and asked if I wanted to sit down, I thought he was dead."
Florin was taken to the Countess of Chester Hospital with numerous fractured bones.
He'd come close to being paralysed in the incident, he said, and was lucky to have been travelling in the vehicle he was.
Tracy explained: "That night he was meant to go in a normal taxi, but the office said take the minibus.
"If he'd been in his normal car, he wouldn't have been here now."
Florin said: "In a smaller car, we'd have been dead.
"The impact was 120mph altogether - him travelling at 90 and me at 30.
"God was looking after me that night.
"My dad died three years ago, and I think he was looking out for me as well - and my nan."
Florin said his life has been "changed forever" - and he has nerve damage in one of his feet, which he requires more surgery on as well as a hip replacement.
Tracy said: "When he got out of hospital, they had to train me to get him out of bed and put his neck brace on.
"It was during covid, so no one could come out.
"My daughter Mia doesn't like change, so when this happened it was worse.
"The doctor explained a normal spine is smooth - but Florin's looks like someone's stood all over it.
"His neck, his hip, and his leg are for life.
"He's never going to be 100 per cent.
"He used to like football, fishing and gardening - we had a good life before this and used to go out every weekend.
"We don't feel like we've had justice.
"He wanted to kill himself for the first six months - it was bad.
"He kept asking me - kill me please. Cut my leg off.
"It has caused arguments"
Speaking of the sentence, Florin said: "Why not just give more?
"If I had been in his position, I feel I'd have got longer - and I'd have been banned for life.
"He was going three times the speed limit and it has changed my life forever.
"I will never be the same person again.
"And I feel responsible for my customers."
Tracy said: It's going to be a long recovery, and a long time until it gets to some kind of normality."
The couple said the support and kindness of friends and family were a big help, particularly in the immediate aftermath of the incident.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here