Crash Caused By Phone Gambler Led To Premature Birth
26 February 2026
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George TorrEast Midlands
A male who was betting on his phone when he crashed into a vehicle, causing a pregnant woman to give birth prematurely, has actually been imprisoned.
Jack Bentley hit a fixed Nissan X-Trail queuing in traffic on the A50 in Hatton, Derbyshire, on 6 April.
Police said the driver of the Nissan suffered whiplash and the pregnant guest was rushed into hospital with a fractured hips. Two other kids in the exact same cars and truck suffered injuries while the household's animal dog was seriously hurt and needed to go through emergency surgery.
Bentley, 30, confessed two counts of causing major injury by hazardous driving and was imprisoned for 28 months at Derby Crown Court and banned from driving for 38 months.
After the crash the pregnant woman needed to undergo an emergency Caesarean section, leaving her early baby in intensive care for a number of weeks, when she suffered two collapsed lungs.
The child later on made a recovery and was able to go home.
Derbyshire Police said Bentley, of Meadow Way, Derby, had actually been travelling home from Blackpool when the crash happened at 18:45 BST.
A chauffeur in the left-hand lane caught the footage on her dashcam, which was used as proof.
Bentley, in the right-hand lane, did not see the fixed traffic and crashed without altering his speed, police said.
He was seen earlier drifting into the yard edge of the eastbound carriageway between junctions 6 and 5, along with swerving between lanes.
Bentley was arrested at the scene. Analysis of his phone information following the crash showed he had been using his phone while driving, visiting online gambling websites, the force stated.
'Missed early minutes'
In a victim effect declaration, the mom said: "I required an emergency situation Caesarean due to my baby remaining in distress. I found this very distressing and didn't want my infant to be born like that and that early.
"My baby was born without skin-to-skin contact and me and my partner had to wait to see her.
"When you have a baby you expect to be in a bubble with your partner and newborn child but we were separated across 3 wards in the medical facility and missed out on out on so much in those early minutes.
"No mom or daddy should need to go through this.
"The next 3 weeks we invested in medical facility getting our baby strong enough to come home."
Following sentencing on 11 February, PC Richard Morris, from Derbyshire Police, said: "This was a dreadful display screen of driving by Bentley, who spent the bulk of his journey sidetracked by being on his phone.
"I understand that the physical, psychological and emotional injury from this event continues to influence on this family, who were simply going out their day when this entirely avoidable collision took place."
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