Ex-Rolls-Royce engineer given cancer all-clear 24 hours before A38 horror smash

A former Rolls-Royce chief combustion engineer was airlifted to hospital just 24 hours after being given the all-clear from cancer when his near-stationary Nissan Micra was struck by a van travelling at more than 80mph.

Roger Bowler, a 73-year-old father and grandfather who founded and was chairman of the Derby Sight Loss Leisure Group charity, was seriously injured in the collision on the afternoon of July 1 last year on the A38 just north of Derby. The force of the impact caused the van to hit other vehicles and the central reservation.

Van driver Aaron Roberts, 38, of Nesbitt Street Sutton-in-Ashfield, had been on his phone moments before the crash. Evidence showed he had been sent a photo to a WhatsApp group called "Lads lads lads" of a digital thermometer and had taken and sent a photograph of the temperature inside his van. He was travelling at 82mph at the point of collision and had been driving at 89mph until five seconds before the crash.

Bowler suffered multiple injuries including numerous broken ribs. His daughter read a victim impact statement to Derby Crown Court describing her father as "fully independent with no physical limitations and his mind remained sharp" before the accident. She said: "My dad always told me to look at life with the glass half full."

Tragically, Bowler's cancer returned seven months after the collision. He died in March of this year. His daughter told the hearing how "in the time period of him being told it was going and it returning his daughter described him as being a shadow of the person he was."

Judge Shaun Smith KC told Roberts: "You were driving in the most appalling manner. Shortly prior to that you had been on your phone sending not just a photo but also text. Nobody had a chance." Roberts was jailed for two years and disqualified from driving for two years and ten months. He pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving.