Dean Heaven: Son dies few hours after dad's funeral in tragic road crash because his cousin was 'drunk-driving'
SWANSEA, WALES: A son was killed in a traumatic road crash just hours after attending his own father’s funeral. Dean Heaven, 46, died on May 1, 2021, when his second cousin Michael Stock, 54, who was high on a cocktail of cocaine, cannabis, and alcohol, smashed his Mercedes on Graiglwyd Road in Townhill, Swansea.
Swansea Crown Court heard Stock had been driving between his Mercedes between 70mph and 89mph on residential streets when he lost control of his vehicle and struck several parked cars before demolishing bollards, a lamppost, and a bus shelter, and flipping on its roof. Prosecutor Brian Simpson said Stock was left hanging upside down from the seatbelt inside the wrecked car, while Heaven, who was on the passenger seat, was flung three meters from the vehicle and suffered fatal head injuries, according to Daily Mail.
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What led to the tragic car crash?
Police and paramedics arrived at the scene just before 1 am but they failed to save Heaven as he succumbed to his injuries including "serious and unsurvivable head and rib fractures." Swansea Crown Court heard the two men had been at the funeral and wake of Mr. Heaven's father in the hours before the late-night crash. It was also revealed that Stock had 117mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood - the legal limit being 80mg - when tested at 5 am, five hours after the crash. In addition, his cannabis and cocaine metabolite levels were both over the legal driving limit.
Judge Paul Thomas KC said he was "astonished" to know that back calculations were not performed to determine Stock's blood-alcohol content at the time of the collision. Stock admitted to causing death by dangerous driving and received a five-year driving prohibition in addition to two years and eight months prison sentence. Tim Evans, the defense attorney, said that Stock "dearly loved" Heaven and wished he could go back in time. He said Stock had shown "the ultimate level of remorse" and wished he had been the one to pass away rather than his cousin.
Stock 'drove at grossly excessive speed while out of his head'
"He never wants to get behind the wheel again and remember what he did to his beloved friend and cousin Dean," the defense attorney said. Concluding the hearing, Judge Thomas KC said Stock "drove at grossly excessive speed while out of his head." In her family impact statement, Dean's daughter Jade gushed about her father being her "first love, best friend and the person who had made me smile." She compared losing her father to being stuck in a nightmare and added that her dad would not be there for the important milestones in her life like walking her down the aisle. She added that there was "no goodbye, no answers... the only thing was having for certain is loss," according to Wales Online.