Moment drunk barmaid sobs ‘who’s dead?’ after killing pal in horror crash when she piled SEVEN people into her tiny car
THIS is the moment a drunk barmaid sobbed “who’s dead” after killing her pal in a crash when she piled seven people into her car.
Karla Dodds was “well over” the drink-drive limit when she offered to take six friends in her small Hyundai i10 hatchback to a house party.
Four of the passengers crammed into the back seat and one reluctantly climbed into the boot of the hatchback.
Truman Hub was hanging his head out of the rear passenger window when Dodds lost control and hit a lamppost.
The 22-year-old was crushed when the Hyundai flipped during the horror in North Tyneside in November 2022.
Dodds, 25, has now been jailed for 12 years and banned from driving for 13 years after she was found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving.
She had pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of causing death by careless driving while over the drink-drive limit.
It was today revealed that Dodds had been a passenger in a car involved in a fatal collision before her own horror crash.
She was also caught and later convicted of drug-driving in a separate incident following Truman’s death.
Footage has now been released of Dodds being arrested outside her home after she fled the scene of the horror.
She can be seen sobbing and repeatedly asks “who’s dead” when police tell her she is being held on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving.
Dodds adds: “Please tell me who’s dead.”
In a victim impact statement, Truman’s mum Rozalind Hub said her “heart is dead” and she can still hear her “chilling screams” from when police told her he had died.
She added: “Life is unbearable and I’m not ashamed to admit I’ve been suicidal and have thought many times throughout the day how could I end my life and be with my gorgeous boy.
“Everyone knows how much I love all three of my sons. Now it’s a struggle because there’s always going to be one of my darling boys missing.”
Rozalind also told how she feels “feel hostile, anger and even hatred” towards Dodds for “cruelly cutting our son’s life so short”.
Newcastle Crown Court heard Dodds had been working a pub on November 19, 2022, before heading out drinking at 11.30pm.
She spent a few hours in a nightclub in Whitley Bay before picking up six of her pals to take them to a nightclub.
Prosecutor Andrew Espley said she was “well over the legal limit for alcohol for driving” at the time.
Jurors heard Truman, who had got in the car with his girlfriend Lauren, was hanging out the car as it approached a roundabout.
Dodds was driving “too fast in the circumstances” with her music blaring before she ploughed into the lamppost.
The car flipped on to its passenger side and crushed Truman before coming to a stop on the driver’s side.
Mr Espley said Truman likely would not have died if he was not hanging out the window.
But he told jurors the car rolled over “because of the dangerous way Karla Dodds was driving”.
He added: “She was well over the limit for alcohol, the car was overloaded, there were seven people in it, one of them was in the boot and on any view she knew her car was overloaded and there was someone hanging out of her rear passenger window.”
The passenger who was crammed into the boot said he felt a bump then “everything seemed to spin or rotate” and he banged his head.
Another pal said Dodds claimed she was “ok to drive” but kept speeding despite the group begging her to slow down.
Truman’s girlfriend Lauren said the music was “really loud” before the crash and that people were singing along.
She told how Truman put his head out the window but she grabbed him and told him to “stop acting like an idiot and get your head back in”.
After the crash, the group told how they regained consciousness to find Dodds shouting “we’ve got to go, we’ve got to go” before she fled.
Mr Espley said: “We say it would have been obvious to Karla Dodds something had happened to Truman Hub, probably that he was seriously injured and she left the scene anyway with her friend.”
The court heard Dodds, who was nearly twice the drink-drive limit almost four hours after the collision, told police the “whole thing was a bit of a blur“.
Dodds has now been remanded into custody and will be sentenced today.