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Abstract

Three American women in London for a short study trip suffered “life-changing” injuries when a driver careered into them in an “appalling” hit-and-run in King’s Cross.

Toma Bruziene, 34, lost control of her car and drove onto the pavement, uprooting a small tree before mowing down the students.

The car hit them with such force that they were thrown six metres down the road.

Detectives described the students’ injuries as “life-changing” and said it was “a miracle they survived” the accident last summer.

One woman sustained a serious head injury and another fractured her neck. All three suffered fractures and cuts.

The women, all aged 20, were walking back to their York Way accommodation on August 29 after a night out when the crash occurred.

Bruziene, who had been drinking, fled the scene and abandoned her Toyota Avensis in a car park two streets away.

A taxi driver who witnessed the crash chased after her and attempted to detain her but she got away, handing herself into Islington police station the next day.

Bruziene was jailed for three years and four months at Blackfriars Crown Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to three counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and failing to stop at the scene of a collision.

She was banned from driving for four years.

Although she could not be charged with drink-drive offences, the judge decided that Bruziene’s actions by drinking and driving were a direct cause of the collision.

The victims’ legal team said the accident had had a “devastating impact” on the victims as their study trip to the New York University campus in Bloomsbury turned into a series of “inpatient hospital stays, numerous medical appointments and immobility”.

“The reckless behaviour of the defendant has had a devastating impact on three young students but also on the driver’s own family,” the legal team added. “No one involved in this tragic incident has been left unscathed.”

Detective Sergeant Chris Osborne said: “This was an appalling incident for everyone concerned. It was a miracle all three women survived, although they suffered horrendous, life-changing injuries. To make matters worse, she then failed to stop and tried to conceal her car.

“The actions of the taxi driver in following her and attempting to detain her were rightly commended by the judge. We wish all three girls well in their ongoing recovery.”