Renaisse Monk, 24, was jailed for 30 months at Wolverhampton Crown Court after pleading guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving following a three-vehicle collision in Walsall.
The crash, which occurred in the early hours of June 8 last year at the traffic light-controlled junction of Birmingham Road, Walstead Road and Bell Road, left one of Monk's passengers with serious injuries, West Midlands Police said. Monk was driving a Volkswagen Polo behind a Toyota Corolla and a Nissan Qashqai when the collision occurred.
Police said the Polo struck the rear offside of the Corolla as the other vehicles were slowing to a stop, shunting the Toyota into the rear of the Qashqai. The Volkswagen then continued into lane three, colliding with railings and a traffic light on the island. Four people were in Monk's vehicle; occupants of the other two cars were not seriously hurt.
Officers said witnesses saw Monk retrieving two canisters of nitrous oxide from the vehicle after the crash and then discarding them by a nearby wall; the canisters were later recovered and presented in evidence. In custody, blood tests indicated Monk had cocaine and cannabis in her system.
Detective Sergeant Paul Hughes, of West Midlands Police’s Serious Collision Investigation Unit, said Monk drove at speeds between 56 mph and 64 mph on a 30 mph residential road and called her actions "totally reckless." "Drug driving and speeding are two of the major causes of collision on our roads," Hughes added, urging drivers to understand how illegal and legal substances can impair driving and decision-making.
Monk pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving and was sentenced last Tuesday. In addition to the 30-month jail term, the judge banned her from driving for five years and three months and ordered that she must pass an extended driving test when eligible.
The sentence came almost three years after Monk was herself struck outside the Turks Head pub in Wednesbury and suffered multiple fractures. At the time she posted on social media that she was grateful to have survived. The driver responsible for that earlier attack, McBright Nyazuma, was convicted of two counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and two counts of attempted grievous bodily harm with intent in connection with separate incidents and was jailed for 12 years at Wolverhampton Crown Court in January 2022.
Court records and police accounts set out the sequence of events and the evidence presented at trial and sentencing, including the discarded nitrous oxide canisters and the presence of controlled substances in Monk’s bloodstream. West Midlands Police said the sentencing should serve as a warning that reckless driving with drugs in the system can lead to serious injury and custodial sentences.