Two brothers have avoided jail after they left a teenage girl critically injured while racing each other on the Sandbanks peninsula in cars bought by their parents to help them heal from their split.
Harrison Taylor, 19, raced around the millionaire’s playground in a Mercedes A200, closely followed by 21-year-old brother Henry in a BMW 135i.
Harrison was going ‘pedal to the metal’ when he lost control and collided with a gatepost outside a multi-million pound mansion in Poole, Dorset, a court heard.
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The BMW, driven by Henry, then ploughed into the back of the Mercedes, sending it flying forwards into a garden wall at around 1am on Boxing Day, 2023.
Mia Savage, who was a passenger in the Mercedes, was trapped in the crumpled vehicle and had to be cut free.
The then 17-year-old was airlifted to hospital and was left with life-changing injuries, including a shattered left femur, a tear in the inner layer of her aorta, a fractured neck, broken arm, and eight broken ribs. She also sustained severe internal bleeding as a result of a severed spleen, split diaphragm and liver laceration.
As a result of the crash, the young woman underwent a complex surgery and was placed in an induced coma for a week. A student at private Clayesmore School, she missed out on her chosen university because of the lesser grades she got having missed so much education because of her recovery.
The two brothers pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving and were expecting to go to prison at Bournemouth Crown Court today. However, Judge Robert Pawson gave the pair suspended sentences because of their previous good character as well as their young ages.
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Harrison Taylor, 19, (pictured) was driving the Mercedes with Mia as passenger during the collision which saw his vehicle fly into a garden wall
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Henry Taylor (pictured leaving Poole Magistrates’ Court), then 21, was driving the BMW with another friend in the passenger seat
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Instead, the ‘selfish’ brothers have been banned from driving for three years.
The two had been at a property nearby Canford Cliffs Road with four friends when they decided to go for a ride around Sandbanks in three vehicles, the court was told.
The third car was a VW Polo driven by Reuben Smith whose father works for Mercedes F1.
Miss Savage went to get into the Polo but switched to Harrison’s Mercedes when he shouted out ‘don’t leave me on my own’.
In a victim impact statement, Ms Savage said: ‘I wish every day that I had stayed in the car with Reuben and not joined Harrison.’
The group set off in convoy but the Polo struggled to keep up with the other two cars which were travelling at between 80-90mph on the 30mph road.
The vehicles had been gifted to the pair in a bid to help them following their parent’s split, the court heard.
And just moments later, Harrison, who works as a property consultant for an estate agents, lost control of his Mercedes sparking the horror crash.
At the scene, he told police that he clipped the curb, collided with a wall and blanked out.
Henry, who is a barber, claimed to police that he was unable to dodge his brother’s car while coming around the corner, at a speed he estimated to be around 35mph.
This was dismissed later as ‘nonsense’ by the judge.
The court heard the brothers had also been tested at the scene and were negative for drugs and alcohol.
Harrison and Henry Taylor both live with their dad Rob Taylor in posh Dorset Lake Avenue, a stone’s throw from the Sandbanks peninsula.
Guy Ladenburg, defending Henry, said their misfortune was ‘purely their own fault’ and it was ‘tragic’ the path Mia’s life had taken because of their actions.
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Mia Savage, then 17, (pictured) was sitting in the front passenger seat when the brothers crashed their cars speeding around Poole Harbour, Dorset
He described it as the ‘height of recklessness and irresponsibility’ maybe fuelled by their sense of teenage invulnerability.
Following the sentencing, Ms Savage’s mother Karen Bulgarelli, a lawyer, expressed her disappointment with the outcome.
‘They have ruined three people’s lives but they are all clapping each other on the back that they’re walking out,’ she said.
The mother described the incident as a ‘parent’s worst nightmare’ as she recalled rushing to the scene, sitting 20ft away as her daughter was extracted from the car.
‘They told me to prepare myself, her injuries were very serious and life-threatening,’ she said.
‘Every time they came with an update I was expecting them to say they had lost her. Thankfully that did not happen.’
Describing seeing her daughter before she underwent hours of surgery as ‘shocking’, Ms Bulgarelli revealed Ms Savage’s damaged organs ‘were pushed up into her chest cavity’.
‘Every surgery was critical. It’s quite incredible what the teams did that saved her life that day.
‘Mia is a very determined young lady. Against every odds she survived but still has a long road of recovery,’ she added.
‘She cannot talk about the accident, she shuts down completely.’
Miss Savage said she suffers flashbacks and was diagnosed with PTSD, underwent months of physiotherapy, and has also been left with permanent visible scarring.
She said they had been a close group of friends before the accident, but some of those friendships had ‘completely broken down’.
Judge Robert Pawson told the brothers they were idiots, selfish and immature and were lucky Mia had not died.
He remarked that the duo would be facing more than a decade if the young woman had died.
Judge Pawson also said whoever had bought the immature brothers cars with 300 and 150 horsepower showed a ‘distinct lack of foresight’.
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The crash, which involved a BMW 135i and a Mercedes A200, left Mia with life changing injuries after her legs became stuck in the wreckage (Pictured: the scene of the crash)
‘Boxing Day two years ago was a defining moment in the life of Mia Savage, a blameless young woman,’ he said.
‘You two, then aged 17 and 19, driving cars far too powerful for your experience or ability, you are not victims.
‘You have potentially ruined another human being’s life with your actions, selfishness and immaturity.
‘Any parent couldn’t help but shudder to imagine the scene Mia’s mother arrived to discover.
‘Why did that all happen? Because you two were driving those idiotically overpowered cars and decided to race each other.
‘Harrison, a few seconds prior to impact your foot was pressed 100 per cent, pedal to the metal, between 80-90mph. You’re an idiot.
‘Cases like this have no winners, only losers.’
He described the impact on Ms Savage as ‘appalling’ and the fallout of their actions as ‘staggering stupidity and selfishness’.
The judge also hit out at the brothers lack of courage and honour for not admitting what they did sooner.
However because of their age, guilty pleas and previous good character the brothers were given an 18-month suspended sentence.
They were also banned from driving for three years and both given a 14-month tagged curfew between 8pm and 6am.
