Personal injury news

Man kills cousin in speeding car accident

A young father-of-two has been jailed after causing a car accident that killed his cousin.

24-year-old Mark Murkin from Cambridge was driving a stolen Ford Sierra at over 70mph when he entered a 30mph stretch of the A1101 in Suffolk. He lost control on a notoriously sharp bend and ploughed into the path of an oncoming Ford Escort, seriously injuring his passenger, cousin and lifelong best friend Levi Bailey.

The four people in the Escort were uninjured but Bailey died shortly after from multiple personal injuries. Murkin was taken to hospital with a fractured rib, contusions to his lung and a neck injury but was discharged five days later.

Following the car accident in the early hours of December 13th 2004, Mark Murkin pleaded guilty at Ipswich Crown Court to dangerous driving and theft and was sentenced to 27 months in prison. Judge John Devaux ordered that he should serve no more than half his jail term and also disqualified him from driving for three years.

The judge summed-up by saying, "Your sorrow for this offence is, I am sure, genuine. Not only because you suffered a significant injury. but because the person who died was your cousin and best friend."