Reading driver Alicia Page-Dove avoids jail after crash

Alicia Page-Dove was giving two of her friends a lift home from Chippenham on November 1, 2020, but was playing with her phone and speeding before she veered out of control and into a tree on a country road.

One of her passengers received a broken collar bone and a broken spine, and it was “solely good fortune” that she was not paralysed.

Appearing before Swindon Crown Court on Monday, Judge Jason Taylor QC said that Page-Dove had no idea how close a run thing his deliberations were on whether to send her to prison immediately.

The court heard the two passengers were on a night out in Chippenham on Saturday night when they posted on social media asking for a lift home.

The now 19-year-old, who had only passed her test nine months earlier, picked them up, but both passengers reported Page-Dove was driving above the speed limit and erratically, prosecutor Richard Tutt told the court.

Her Volkswagen Polo’s black box recorded speeds of 33 miles per hour in a 30 zone, 51mph in a 40 zone on the A420, 54mph in a 50 zone on the B4039 and then up to 68mph in a national speed limit area, he said.

Page-Dove's route included the A420 from Chippenham to Yatton Keynell. Photo: Google Maps.

Immediately before the collision, on The Street between Yatton Keynell and Grittleton, Page-Dove ignored a sign warning of s-bends and the word ‘slow’ on the road.

The defendant also recorded video clips of herself in the car and posted it to social media while driving.

In a victim statement read to the court, one of the passengers said: “We began driving through Chippenham and we began going quite quickly, I was feeling uneasy at this point.

“Throughout the journey, she regularly looked down at the phone. The defendant then turned up the music to full volume and was looking down at the phone when she approached the bend.

“I thought if we don’t crash at this corner we’ll crash at some point before we get home.”

The car veered off the road and into a tree and all three were injured. One suffered a broken collar bone and broke a bone at the bottom of her spine. Page-Davis needed metal rods inserted into her pelvis.

Mitigating, Andrew Nuttall said that Page-Dove, of Upper Redlands Road, Reading, struggled with a “combination of her age and mental health issues, and the fact she is essentially unsupported.”

Asked why she filmed videos while driving on two other occasions since the incident but before she was charged, and had told probation that she was not giving much thought to her own wellbeing, Mr Nuttall said: “She was at a very low ebb in her life. There was no one else there to counsel her.

“She’s not seeking to excuse her actions. This is a young woman struggling to live with what she has done.

“This has been hanging over her head for a very long time and has been having to live with this for every hour or every day.”

Page-Dove admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

Sentencing, Judge Taylor said that part of the reason the case had been going on for so long was because of her lies in interview. She had blamed the collision on wet leaves on the road and had denied using her phone immediately before the crash or speeding.

He told her: “The consequence of your actions were serious. All of you were injured, but the most serious was your rear seat passenger. That could easily have resulted in paralysis and it is solely good fortune that she did not.

“I recognise that you are facing mental health issues and you would lose your university place if you lose your liberty today. Irrespectively, there are serious consequences today.”

He described her as a driver with a cavalier approach to safety and he said needed to consider appropriate punishment, while balancing it with the “prospect of rehabilitation and personal mitigation”.

“The appropriateness of custody is powerful, but given your age and the prospect for change, I am narrowly convinced that immediate custody is not the only option. But you have no idea how close a run thing this was here.”

He sentenced her to two years in prison, suspended for two years and imposed an 8pm-7am curfew for eight weeks.

She must do 175 hours of unpaid work, and 20 rehabilitation activity days.

“You need to understand that whilst young people like to go out I suspect your lifestyle at the time contributed to what took place,” the judge told Page-Dove.

“This is being reserved to me. If you breach your curfew, I will be told about it. It is designed to stop you going out with your friends, because I know that will be hard for you.

“Take it seriously, because if you don’t, the presumption is you will go to prison.”

Page-Dove was banned from driving for four years and must take an extended test when she wants to reapply for a licence.