A PROMISING young sportsman who suffered multiple injuries caused by a drink-driver, last night told how he feared he might never compete again.

Brian Jackson, 33, who was almost three times the drinkdrive limit in his Vauxhall Vectra when it collided with an oncoming Ford Fiesta, was yesterday jailed for a year.

Last night Warwick French, a semi-professional moto-cross rider from Spennymoor, told The Northern Echo: “I haven’t been able to get on a bike since the accident.”

The 18-year-old’s skull was fractured in six places, his collar bone was broken, his hip was dislocated, his pelvis was shattered and he suffered internal bleeding.

While he was recovering, he contracted meningitis and had other complications.

His girlfriend who was a passenger in the car suffered a broken ankle and a fractured foot.

Mr French said: “I’m sure I will be able to ride a bike again at some point but, whether or not I can do what I did before and compete I just really can’t tell yet.

“I might never race again.”

The sportsman, who should have been competing in the British Maxxis Motorsports Championships this year, said: “I spent most of last year preparing for it, it’s a year’s hard work down the tubes. It was everything, it was my life.”

Durham Crown Court heard that the collision, in Spennymoor, late on Saturday, October 3, caused Mr French, who was 17 at the time, to be thrown from the car.

Stuart Allison, prosecuting, said more than six months after the accident Mr French is still using crutches and has a neck collar, and he has to constantly take pain killers.

Mr Allison said Mr French’s girlfriend, Charlotte Hardy, now 16, spent five days in hospital and her foot was in plaster for five weeks.

It has put her behind in her sixth form studies and she failed an exam as a result.

The court heard that Jackson was driving well over the 40mph speed limit, and on the wrong side of the road, in the lead-up to the collision, in Grayson Road.

Both drivers swerved, but each car was left facing the wrong direction and badly damaged on impact.

When Jackson was asked for a breath sample he replied: “I’ll be over”, and a subsequent blood sample gave a reading of 226mg of alcohol, compared to the limit of 80mg.

Jackson, of Beech Avenue, Spennymoor, admitted drink-driving and dangerous driving.

The court heard he has a previous drink-driving conviction.

Mike Bosomworth, mitigating, said Jackson was out drinking with his girlfriend earlier that night but has no recollection of the incident or even why he would want to have driven that night.

Judge Christopher Prince jailed Jackson for a year and banned him from driving for six years.

Commenting on the sentence, Mr French said: “It doesn’t matter how long he is locked up, it won’t make my life any better or make it any easier for me to get back on a bike.”