Young motorcyclist wanted to be volleyball pro before crash with van 'threw his dream out of the window'
The victim said he was at his “social and physical peak” before the crash.
A van driver left a professional volleyball hopeful with life-changing injuries in a crash on the way home from work.
Motorcyclist Daniel Sobczak-Danielski had no chance of reacting in time when Sebastian Vanmook’s Citroen Berlingo pulled out in front of him at a junction on the B5061 near Atcham.
Account manager Vanmook, now 53, was on his way home from helping his father when he turned right into the motorcyclist’s path on January 23 this year, Telford Magistrates Court heard.
After they collided Mr Sobczak-Danielski was rushed to hospital with the tibia and femur in his left leg broken and a bleed on the brain. He underwent two surgeries at the Royal Stoke University Hospital and spent six weeks as an inpatient at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, before months of rehabilitation an outpatient as he learned to walk again.
Skin from his right leg was grafted onto his left, and he had a titanium rod and bolts installed in his broken leg that will affect his mobility for the rest of his life.
He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and he “feared being on the road when [he] had to travel to the hospital as an outpatient”, he said in a statement read to the court by prosecutor Anneka Sian on Tuesday (May 19).
“For months post-accident I couldn’t sleep,” he wrote. “I have balance issues. My shoes are uncomfortable to wear. Throughout my entire process of recovery I experience varying amounts of pain to this day. I struggle to carry out everyday tasks.”
He said he couldn’t work for months and and lost income in the region of £2,000. His parents had to take turns caring for him during his time in hospital and the motorbike had to be scrapped.
Before the crash he was at his “social and physical peak”, he said, doing well at college and with ambitions of becoming a professional volleyball player.
He said in his statement he felt that dream was “thrown out of the window” as a result of his injuries and his prolonged absence from college affected his grades.
At the time of writing the statement he was due to have two more surgeries, and noted that they “are not guaranteed to work” and would leave him “out of action for a further six weeks”.
‘He has a very deep understanding of the effect these accidents can have on people’
The court heard that Vanmook, an account manager for a company in Telford, pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to causing serious injury by careless driving. He has no previous convictions.
Mitigating for the defendant, Andrew Holland said Vanmook had seen the motorbike but misjudged its distance from him.
“Mr Vanmook was working with his father on an industrial estate, he was making his way home on January 23. He had his two dogs in the back of a van.
“As explained to the police, he came to the junction, he wasn’t in a rush, he wasn’t under the influence of drugs, alcohol or anything.
“He saw the single light coming down the road to his right and he misjudged the distance.
“He thought the vehicle was further away than it was and he manoeuvred his vehicle out, intending to turn right, and unfortunately the motorcycle was closer than he had thought.”
Vanmook immediately stopped and gave Mr Sobczak-Danielski first aid while waiting for emergency service crews to arrive, Mr Holland said.
“He has a very deep understanding of the effect these accidents can have on people. He was the first witness to a fatal road traffic accident some years ago where a young passenger lost her life.
“He is a competent and careful driver, fully aware of the consequences of road traffic accidents.”
District Judge Joseph O’Connor said: “Mr Sobczak-Danielski will deal with the consequences of this accident probably for the rest of his life.
“It was, as described, a lapse of concentration [...] which led to the accident. The culpability is low but the harm is the highest.”
He sentenced Vanmook, of Longden Common near Shrewsbury, to a 12-month community order including 200 hours of unpaid work.
He also banned him from driving on any public road for one year, backdated to the day he pleaded guilty in February and was made subject of an interim disqualification.