21-year-old man jailed for careless driving

A new driver has been jailed for 10 months after pleading guilty to two counts of causing death by careless driving.

Farm worker Ionut Curut, 21, was driving himself and three colleagues to work at 7am on Friday 13 October (2017) when he lost control of the company vehicle in Puddock Road, Warboys.

The silver Mazda 6 TS veered off the road into a deep drainage channel. Curut and his front-seat passenger, a 46-year-old man, managed to escape from the vehicle before it submerged, however the two back seat passengers, Ingrida Dudeniene, 47, of Spring Gardens, Spalding and Ilze Dobele, 46, of New Road, Spalding, were trapped in the car and sadly both drowned.

The two men were taken to hospital and treated for minor injuries before being questioned by police.

When asked about the incident, Curut accepted responsibility and cited his lack of experience as a driver as a potential cause of the incident. He had passed his test just weeks before the collision and had arrived in England only one week prior.

Sergeant Toni Hall-Madden of the Collision Investigation Unit said: “This is a heart-breaking case in which one person’s careless driving resulted in the deaths of two innocent people.

“Although the car was travelling at 50mph on a road with a 60mph limit, it does not mean the driver’s actions were any less irresponsible.

“It is vital that people drive in a safe, considerate way in order to prevent awful instances like this occurring in the future.”