Shocking moment speeding van driver distracted by phone slams into broken-down car leaving victim with lifelong injuries
THIS is the shocking moment a van driver smashed into a stopped car at high speed leaving his victim with horrific injuries.
Nathan Cole, admitted to checking social media while
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Nathan Cole was jailed for over two years
Credit: SWNS
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Cole admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving
Credit: SWNS
The 29-year-old was speeding down the dual carriageway in a Volkswagen van when he failed to see a Peugeot that had stopped on the hard shoulder.
Travelling at 72 mph, 12 mph faster than his van's limit, Cole slammed into the back of the
The horrific crash left the driver of the broken down car with life changing injuries.
Cole's victim spent time in a coma and had to have their leg surgically amputated following the harrowing collision.
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Dash cam footage of the crash shows Cole staring down at his phone while speeding along the road.
The harrowing video shows the moment Cole slams into the stopped car with pieces of the smashed Peugeot being thrown into the air by the impact of the speeding van.
His victim can be seen waving his hands out of the open
The 60-year-old man Cole struck and injured is then violently shunted out of sight of the camera by the force of the
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At 72 mph the speeding van sheers off the drivers side door of the Peugeot in the violent impact.
Cole immediately reacts as the air bag goes off in his face, he grabs hold of the steering wheel with both hands and
Pulling his van over in the next lay-by Cole climbs out as smoke and dust begin to fill the cab of the
Horror moment car ploughs into pedestrian TWICE in front of onlookers as man arrested on suspicion of attempted murder
Pictures later show the destroyed Peugeot which was left with no door and a completely ruined back end.
An image of the scene shows debris strewn across both lanes of the dual carriageway with the
Cole later admitted causing serious injury by
Appearing at Lewes Crown Court for sentencing on June 13 he was handed down a two year and four month
Cole has also been banned from driving for four years and four months.
The court heard that the harrowing crash happened on December 13, 2023, on the
Cole's victim, a 60-year-old man, was left with life changing injuries after being ploughed into by the speeding van.
The van struck the man directly and he was rushed to hospital where he received urgent
Cole's victim was left in a coma over Christmas and required extensive medical attention, including a leg amputation.
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Shocking footage shows the moment of impact
Credit: SWNS
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Cole has been banned from driving for four years and four months
Credit: SWNS
The victim's family said his injuries and treatment are a "daily reminder of a tragedy that has reshaped every aspect of our lives."
Speaking after the case, Det Const Sean Corbin of
"Cole admitted that he was distracted while driving. He was extremely fortunate that he did not cause a
"His reckless driving posed a both to himself and to every other road user.
"It acts as a warning to all drivers not to be driving at excess speed and not to
"Even a momentary loss of awareness can have devastating consequences."
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Footage shows Cole staring at his phone while speeding along the road
Credit: SWNS
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Sunday World
3 hours ago
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Despite the scale of the robbery in December 2004, no one has ever been convicted for the robbery itself. The bank worker charged in connection with the robbery. Two decades on from the night £26.5m disappeared from the Northern Bank's vault in Belfast, author Glenn Patterson has written the definitive account of a crime that stunned the country – and yet, somehow didn't. 'It's just the kind of thing that happens in Northern Ireland,' he says in a discussion with CrimeWorld host Nicola Tallant. It is that almost eerie sense of familiarity, of a city conditioned to violence, that lingers most in Patterson's recently published book, The Northern Bank Job. At its heart is a chilling moment. Karyn McMullan, the wife of bank manager Kevin McMullan, blindfolded, stripped and dumped in a forest after being held hostage for hours, hears an explosion. 'Well that would be the car being blown up,' she thought, 'because that's just what they do in this country.' A final note in an intricately orchestrated heist that still has no convictions, revealing the uneasy normality of organised crime in post-Troubles Northern Ireland. Author Glenn Patterson. The robbery unfolded on December 20, 2004, in what remains one of the biggest cash heists in Irish history. Patterson's gripping book details the scale and precision of the operation, exposing an inside job pulled off with remarkable audacity, composure and a whole network of accomplices. It began, as so many of Belfast's darkest stories do, with a knock on the door. That door belonged to Chris Ward, a young single man from Poleglass who worked at the bank's cash centre, and had opted out of his usual Sunday night bar shift that evening, something he only did occasionally. Two men arrived claiming to want to talk about the Celtic but seconds later, more masked men followed. Within moments, Ward and his family became hostages. Meanwhile, miles away, in rural Loughinisland, Kevin McMullan answered a similar knock from men disguised as police. Cops at the scene. 'They said there'd been an accident involving a member of his family and they needed him to identify a body,' Patterson recounts. 'Then came the guns. A gun to Kevin's head. A gun to his wife Karyn's head.' What followed was a masterclass in psychological manipulation and coordination. While Karyn was blindfolded, threatened and transported to a secret location, McMullan and Ward were held overnight and drilled in the following day's script. 'They were told to behave as normal if they wanted their families to remain safe,' Patterson explains. 'Dismiss the other staff, say there was a recount and begin moving the resealed cash, to look like waste paper, out the front door.' And they did... twice. That is perhaps the most staggering detail of all. The robbers came back for a second run, accumulating £26.5m. All carried out with unnerving composure just a few days before Christmas. Ward even left the bank during the day to buy sandwiches and a Christmas present. 'I was told to act normal,' he later said. 'So I acted normal.' In the operation filled with peculiar details, there was, however, one near miss. A member of the public spotted men in striking ginger wigs beside a white van parked near the bank and so alerted a parking warden. 'The warden passed it on to police,' Patterson says, 'but by the time they arrived, the van was gone.' Despite the scale of the crime, no one has ever been convicted for the robbery itself. The only man jailed in connection to it was Cork-based financier Ted Cunningham, who laundered approximately £2.3m of the proceeds. He has continued to deny any involvement in the crime. Chris Ward leaving the bank with the cash. News in 90 Seconds - June 22nd Much of the cash was the Northern Bank's own printed notes, made worthless when the bank recalled the entire run. 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CCTV footage showed McMullan had seen the rota days in advance and had been filmed discussing it with Ward. 'The whole case just crumbled,' says Patterson. 'There wasn't a single piece of direct evidence against him. Nobody asked where the money had gone, he never profited. It just made no sense.' The trial was held in a Diplock court, without a jury, because the charge was deemed to be terror-related. Yet the prosecution refused to speculate on whether the IRA was indeed involved, leaving the process hanging in complete contradiction. A contradiction that did not go unnoticed. As Patterson points out, there was often a reluctance to confront certain truths too directly, 'more often, it was a case of a blind eye being turned to IRA activities in the early 2000s... everything was in service to the peace process, and you might say, with good reason'. For Patterson, the answer may then be quite straightforward. 'They did it because they could,' he says, echoing journalist Suzanne Breen. 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Sunday World
a day ago
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Aerosol addict caught shoplifting from Dealz walks free from court – ‘I did it, I sniffed them'
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The Journal
2 days ago
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Shop cleared of discriminating against children who tried to make €68 payment in 10c and 20c coins
A SHOP HAS BEEN cleared of discriminating against two children who were asked if they had anything larger when they tried to pay for €68 worth of goods with 10 and 20 cent coins. The father of the two children – a boy and a girl – submitted a claim to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) on their behalf and alleged that his children were discriminated against as they were members of the Traveler community. The identities of both parties have been anonymised due to the involvement of children. It had been alleged that the two children were refused service at the shop because they were members of the Travelling community and that the children had suffered embarrassment with both locals and friends as a result of the incident. In a decision published today, the WRC said the complaint was 'not well founded' and that the cashier was 'reasonable' in asking if the children had larger value coins to complete the purchase. The shop in question is family-owned, has operated for over 60 years and employs 70 people. The incident happened on 22 December, 2023, which the shop said is one of its busiest days of the year in the run-up to Christmas. The shop said that at around 1.30pm, two children approached a cashier with a number of items which totalled €68 and that the children initially paid in €1 and €2 coins, as well as 10c and 20c coins. The shop said the cashier counted the coins and it came to €26.80 and that this 'took some time to count'. It is the shop's position that when the cashier asked if the children had the rest of the money, the young girl said she had more coins in a small purse. The cashier said the purse contained a large amount of 10c and 20c coins and that she then asked the girl if she had notes to make up the difference – the young girl did not but said she would ask her father who was in the car. The young girl went outside and returned with her father and the cashier said a 'large queue was building up at her till' in the meantime. The shop said the children's father 'took issue with the cashier' and that the cashier 'found him to be very confrontational'. The shop said the father asked why the cashier 'wasn't taking their money' but that the cashier 'made it clear she was not refusing to take his money but asked if he had any notes as it was a very busy day'. Advertisement The shop said it has CCTV footage which shows the father 'holding large denomination notes during the interaction with the cashier but chose not to use them'. One of the store managers was then approached by the father, who said the cashier had 'refused to take the coins'. The manager said that while the complainant 'had notes, they wished to pay in full using coins'. The manager is said to have explained that given the time of the year, it would be difficult for the cashier to count that amount of coinage and asked if the father could 'count out the exact amount in coins or count it into five or ten euro batches'. The shop also offered coin bags to count the monies into but said the complainant again argued that the shop was 'refusing to accept our payment'. The shop said it tried to find a solution and that an apology was offered and that a voucher was also offered as a 'goodwill gesture' for the 'misunderstanding' but this was refused. The shop said it had never had a complaint against them and that the complainant was 'not treated in a manner less favourable than any other customer'. The shop added that when it was clear there was an intention to use small coins to pay for a balance of up to €40, the cashier asked if the balance could be paid with notes and that this was 'interpreted' as a refusal to serve. WRC Adjudication Officer Peter O'Brien said the 'core issue' is whether the cashier deliberately did not complete the transaction because they were members of the Traveller community. O'Brien deemed it was 'reasonable and not prejudicial of the cashier, with a queue building up, to ask the minors had they larger value coins or notes to complete their purchases'. He noted that the transaction was put on hold while the children went out to their father and that from the evidence supplied by the cashier, she never refused to complete the purchase but asked if there was a more convenient way to pay. O'Brien described this as a 'normal exchange between a cashier and customer' and that from the available evidence, the transaction was cancelled at the father's request. He also noted that repeated offers of apology or attempts to resolve the situation were not accepted. It was deemed that the request to pay with larger value notes or coins 'could easily have applied to a minor who was not a member of the Travelling community or indeed any adult who presented with large amounts of small coinage on such a busy day'. The WRC concluded that the cashier did not engage in discriminatory or prohibited conduct and that her actions were 'reasonable' and 'could have applied to any member of society she was engaging with in the circumstances described'. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. Learn More Support The Journal
