A FATHER had just enjoyed his first Christmas with his son before a ‘tragic’ car crash left him with mobility and memory issues.

Steven Askew was travelling home on the A3400 in Chipping Norton on January 26 last year when he was struck head-on by a car overtaking in the opposite direction.

He had just celebrated his 10-month-old son’s first Christmas in the brand-new home he’d bought with his wife.

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However, the crash, which saw him hospitalised for several weeks, left him unable to remember anything from two weeks before the accident and two weeks following.

Speaking at Oxford Crown Court on Friday (December 22), where driver Jason Zibarras was being sentenced for causing serious injury by dangerous driving, Mr Askew said he suffered from a fractured collarbone, shin, arm, foot, and had two bleeds on his brain.

“A lot of doctors told me I was lucky to be here which is terrifying,” he said. “My son could have been left without a father and my wife would have been left alone, struggling to cope.

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“I was dismissed from the hospital just in time to see my son walk for the first time and to celebrate his first birthday.

“I’m now struggling with what feels like a slower mind and have short-term memory issues.”

Prosecuting the case, Nigel Ogbourne explained that Zibbaras, 50, had overtaken two cars on an inclined road which had two double white lines at about 5.23pm.

Data from his brand-new Porsche revealed the father-of-three, who had his teenage son in the car at the time, had accelerated from 48mph to a maximum of 84mph in five seconds for the overtake.

It was noted that the no-overtaking lines were ‘worn’ and it was dark but it’s the prosecution's case that Zibbaras was familiar with the road so he ‘must have known’ not to manoeuvre.

Defending Zibbaras, Richard Dawson said though the driver had ‘a familiarity’ with the road, he had ‘made a mistake’.

“This is plainly a tragic case with catastrophic consequences. Mr Zibbaras is deeply ashamed. There really is no sentence this court can impose that would be a greater punishment than the torment he already places on himself.”

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Judge John Bate-Williams sentenced Zibbaras, of Oxford Road, Enstone, to 18 months imprisonment and disqualified him from driving for 45 months.

“It was not a mistake,” he said. “It was a bad mistake, a very bad mistake. Mr Askew has suffered devastating effects on his life.

“It was born out of, in my view, your impatience and your desire to show the speed of your new car to your son.”