When a group of friends gathered to "chill" on a popular beach surely none of them could imagine the horror that would follow. On the way home from the beach two of the group raced each other along a country road, an episode of "competitive" driving which ended in death and serious injury and two 21-year-olds facing jail. A judge called it a tragedy.
Late in the afternoon of June 13, 2021 a group of Pembrokeshire friends decided to drive to Broadhaven – the plan had been to buy food from a chip shop but the chippy was closed so they bought supplies from a shop and went to the beach to "chill". Among the group were Jago Clarke and Emma Price. The pair had spent much of the day together hanging out and driving around Haverfordwest. Both were learner drivers, and Clarke had been driving Price's Citroen C1 around town. Price would later say she thought Clarke was a qualified driver.
At the beach Clarke was seen to be drinking from a bottle of Budweiser beer and was "bragging" about how he was going to drive his friend Ella Smith's car and how he would overtake everyone else. He was apparently going to use Lynx Africa deodorant to mask the smell of alcohol. One of the group, Luis Heathfield, told Clark not to be a "f****** idiot" by driving. The warning was ignored.
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Plans were made for 21-year-old Camrose woman Miss Smith drive to Broad Haven beach to collect Clarke, someone she was said to have a "crush" on. In the car park Clarke persuaded her to let him drive her car, a white Ford Ka, and he was seen to get into the driver's seat while Miss Smith climbed over into the passenger's seat. The friends then set off from the car park in a convoy of three vehicles – a Fiat Punto in which Mr Heathfield was a passenger left first followed Price in her Citroen and then Clarke and Miss Smith in the Ka with Clarke at the wheel.
What happened next was the subject of trial at Swansea Crown Court.
The court heard how the convoy drove at speed along the B4341 past the Broadway garage an on towards Portfield Gate and the outskirts of Haverfordwest. At one stage Price pulled out to overtake the Punto in front of her on a stretch of straight road but abandoned the manoeuvre – asked in the trial if there was a need for her to overtake, Price said no.
The court heard the Ka had a "black box" that provided telematics, and though there was no data for the last two miles before the crash the available data – when combined with other timings – showed that prior to the loss of data the Ford had been doing an average speed of 70mph. Price's Citroen was not fitted with a black box.
As the convoy approached Portfield Gate, Clarke and Price jostled for position on the road – though the jury heard conflicting evidence about the positions of the two cars. Mr Heathfield, who was travelling in the lead vehicle of the convoy of three, said he saw in the Fiat's mirrors both Price and Clarke "swerving from side to side" behind him as Price apparently tried to stop Clarke from overtaking her. Ryan Fair, the driver of an coming Seat Ibiza car, told the trial that as he approached a series of bend in the road he saw two cars coming towards him "side-by-side" with a blue car in his lane as it overtook a white car before returning to the correct lane. Moments later Clarke lost control of the Ka.
