THE victim of speeding 'boyracers' who almost killed her and her baby son has warned drivers that their one second of stupidity can ruin the lives of innocent people.

Caroline Grant, 22, and her 14-month-old son, Joe, were cut from their crumpled Ford Fiesta when Paul Hughes' black Ford Focus missed the exit off the Overleigh Roundabout and smashed into their car on Lache Lane last October 1.

Hughes and his friend Iain Littler spent that afternoon drinking, then raced 'bumper to bumper', Chester Crown Court heard this week.

Miss Grant was 16 weeks pregnant and lost her baby - a boy she and her partner Kev named Connor.

She sustained two broken legs, a shattered kneecap, bruising to a lung, and glass and metal in an eye. She faces at least two more leg operations. Joe, now two, was on a life-support machine for two weeks recovering from a brain haemorrhage. He went blind for a month after the accident and had a tracheotomy to help him breathe.

Hughes, 28, of Sycamore Drive, Lache, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving but, Chester Crown Court heard, was found hanged at work in Hooton on May 28.

Littler, 26, of Ludlow Road, Blacon, denied dangerous driving charges but was convicted.

Miss Grant has moved back in with her parents Clive and Sue, of Snowdon Crescent, Lache, as she and Joe recuperate.

Speaking after the trial, she said drivers must understand the severe consequences of their behaviour.

She said: 'I feel extremely angry that we have had to go through all of this just for the sake of driving stupidly.

'Think before you act. People like that don't seem to realise cars aren't toys, they are lethal weapons.

'They can destroy people's lives, they can turn lives upside down in one second of stupidity.'

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