Toyota driver crashed into minibus causing serious injuries to airman

Toyota driver Ayodeji Adedeji failed to stop in time at the junction of Barrow Road and Faringdon Road, on the outskirts of Abingdon, on August 16, 2022, crashing into the minibus taking service personnel from the Oxfordshire air base.

The minibus rolled on its side. While those inside largely escaped with minor injuries, one airman had had his arm out of the window at the time of the crash.

On Thursday (August 31), Oxford Crown Court heard how the man had suffered terrible wounds. Pieces of grit and other debris had to be removed from his skin by plastic surgeons.

Sentencing, Judge Michael Gledhill KC told 28-year-old Adedeji: “You’ve heard described the procedures that had to take place once he got to the John Radcliffe Hospital to remove, in effect, shrapnel from his body.

“He needed plastic surgery, he had to have a skin graft, it’s taken months for him to recover.”

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The victim had suffered post-traumatic stress from the injury and was not sure whether he would be able to return to work, it was said.

Judge Gledhill said: “It is a terrible tragedy and it is of your making, due to that moment’s lapse […] that caused you not to be able to stop.”

Adedeji, of Kestrel Crescent, Oxford, pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court to causing serious injury by careless driving, a relatively new charge that only came into force last summer.

He had no previous convictions and was in work, the court heard.

The judge imposed a 12 month community order with 250 hours of unpaid work and banned Adedeji from driving for two years.

He ordered the payment of £1,000 in compensation, but made it clear: “I don’t want the victim to think I only value the injuries he sustained at the sum of £1,000.

“In fact, I regard £1,000 by way of compensation for this man’s injuries as verging on derisory. But I hope he will understand in those circumstances I am not at all lessening the injuries he sustained.”

Nigel Ogborne, prosecuting, said he would draft a letter to the victim setting out the judge’s comments. Following the criminal proceedings, any civil claim would be dealt with by the respective insurance companies, it was said.

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