A 21-year-old was spared jail after causing a four car pile up.

The accident occurred when Niall Molloy attempted to overtake another car in his BMW 325 on the A197 between Ashington and Pegswood.

Molloy’s BMW crashed his car straight into the path of an oncoming vehicle at 60 mph as well as hitting the car that he was overtaking. A car following the BMW was forced to swerve to avoid colliding with the other vehicles and, as a result, crashed into a tree.

Two men who had been in the other vehicles were left in a critical condition with serious injuries. One victim suffered a broken back, ribs and a punctured lung whilst another suffered complete loss of vision to one eye.

Niall Malloy, the driver who was responsible for the accident, spent three days in intensive care and a further week in hospital due to two dislocated arms, five broken ribs, a ruptured spleen and a punctured lung.

Molloy was arrested and admitted causing dangerous driving. He was later given a 12 month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to pay over £3,000 of court fee’s and fines and to carry out 100 hours of un-paid work.

Mr Recorder Jeremy Barnett said, “I’m satisfied that the only aggravating feature here was your bad decision to overtake”.

“Had I thought that this was reckless speeding, racing or showing off then you would be going straight to jail”.