Driver who needed amputation after 100mph car crash: '˜I've been punished for life'
Rusty Brown agreed police should send out this picture to show the extent of the injuries that were caused after Ke Zhou lost control of a high-performance 4x4 Jaguar.Â
Mr Brown's right leg below the knee was crushed in the wreckage of his Mitsubishi Shogun.Â
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Hide AdZhou, known as Kevin, ran off from the crash and the next morning reported to work at a car dealership as usual, pretending nothing had happened and that his company-owned car had been stolen.
Speaking to The News about the moment he found out Zhou had fled the crash, Mr Brown - who has worked at Merali Pharmacy in Queen Street for 24 years - said: 'I was both angry and upset.
'Angry because it's just not what you do. Anybody with a shred of humanity would go and see and would try and help.'
Mr Brown said his and his partner Jacqui Denton's lives have been turned upside down and he has had to stop the pursuits he used to enjoy, although he hopes to rebuild his life with a prosthetic leg and take part in cycling, long walks and sport again.
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Hide AdMr Brown, who tried to pull himself free of the wreckage but was trapped, added: 'The sentence he got was great.
'The sentence will send a message you can't get away with it.'
In a victim personal statement read out by prosecutor Sarah Morris in court, Mr Brown detailed the struggles with his prosthetic leg and the toll it has taken on his partner.
'We've been punished for life,' he said.
His partner told The News: 'He will serve his sentence and will come out and rebuild his life - we will have to live with this forever.'
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Hide AdBeijing-born Zhou, of Summerly Lane, Bognor Regis, admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving in the crash on August 17, and failing to stop, report an accident and give information as to the identity of a driver. He was jailed for three years and the judge told him it was a miracle Mr Brown didn't die in the accident on the A259 near Bognor.Â
Judge Timothy Mousley QC imposed a four-year ban, extended to cover his time in jail. He must complete an extended retest to regain a licence.
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