A woman left a teacher with “permanent” damage to her arm after it was “de-gloved” in a serious collision on a Leicestershire slip road. The teacher could have lost her arm altogether following the incident which saw Susan Griffin fail to indicate as she switched lanes.
Griffin collided with the teacher’s car on a steep slip road on the A46 roundabout at Anstey in May 2024 after she had found herself in the wrong lane. Griffin switched lanes without indicating or checking it was safe and rammed into the teacher’s car – the impact of which caused the teacher’s to roll over sideways. She suffered serious injuries to her arm which had been on the car’s open window at the time.
Prosecutor Sally Bedford told Leicester Magistrates’ Court on Thursday (January 2): “The victim had the window open and her arm on the window. The vehicle rolled and she suffered a significant injury described as a de-gloving injury, that has had caused permanent damage to her arm.”
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The injuries were so bad that the victim needed multiple surgries, the first of which lasted nine hours. Ms Bedford said: “They weren’t sure they could save the arm.”
Skin from the teacher’s leg was grafted onto her arm over the next two weeks she was in hospital. Court heard the teacher had no movement in her right arm or hand for five months after the incident and has only just started to be able to use her hand to pick things up.
Ms Bedford said: “She lost her independence. She had to have people assist her in basic care – she couldn’t even tie her own shoe laces. She has been in persistent pain and now feels the arm is not part of her and has just become a burden to her. She’s also suffered very significant emotional effects – it’s been an ordeal.”
Griffin switched lanes without indicating, knocking into the teacher’s vehicle on the A46 roundabout at Anstey
(Image: Google)
She said the victim had struggled with teaching in the classroom. As well as feeling traumatised and exhausted she has been unable to use her right had to draw and write, Ms Bedford said.
She added: “It goes against the type of teacher that she wanted to be and it’s having an affect on her students.” She said the victim’s relationship had ended due to the injuries and she had also been left unable to do many of her favourite pastimes, including baking, drawing, crocheting and making jewellery.
Tracy Haslam, representing Griffin, said her client was remorseful and wished she had suffered the injuries instead of the victim. She said: “She is extremely sorry for causing this collision and extremely remorseful and that’s been apparent from the day of the collision until today. She has said she wishes it was her who was injured because she knowns it was her fault.
“The collision was a momentary lapse of concentration. She was approaching the very busy roundabout and moved from the left lane to the middle lane and didn’t take into account the traffic behind her. She struggles with the stress and anxiety of it. Immediately after the collision she took the decision to never drive again.”
Griffin, of Pevensey Road, Loughborough, pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by careless or inconsiderate driving in November last year. She was back in court for sentencing on Thursday, with the chair of the bench Steven Kitchington, saying she would avoid prison. Instead, he issued a community order with unpaid work instead.
He said: “Your previous good character and mitigating factors had an impact on our sentencing, as well as your early guilty plea.”
Grifin was given a 12-month community order with 10 days on Probation Service programmes and 100 hours of unpaid work. She was also ordered to pay £85 court costs and a £114 victim surcharge. She was also banned from driving for 12 months.