An 18-year-old schoolgirl has been jailed for 28 months after a car crash killed one of her friends and left another with ‘life changing’ injuries.

Gabriella Edmondson from Penn, High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire was 17 when she crashed her Toyota Yaris into a ditch on 7 April, after an evening at a nightclub with friends.

The Daily Mail reports that a friend had tried to take the keys from her to prevent her driving the car, as they thought she had been drinking too much – but Ms Edmondson had bragged ‘My car, my rules.’ She had passed her driving test just two months before the accident.

Grace Hadman, 17, was killed when the car plunged into a ditch at 4am on the A34 road near Oxford. She was sitting in the back of the car.

Joe Robinson, 17, was left in a coma for four weeks and sustained serious injuries. Ms Edmondson and another friend escaped with minor injuries.

All four friends were pupils at one of the country’s top co-educational boarding schools – the £25,000-a-year St Edward’s School in Oxford.

The court heard that, on eve of the accident, Ms Edmondson had driven to the house of a 16-year-old friend to meet a group of friends who were going clubbing. There she and her close friend Ms Hadman had consumed a bottle of wine – Ms Edmondson had then continued drinking until midnight at the club.

The court heard that at 3.30am, Ms Edmondson and her friends had driven from the nightclub to the home of a 16-year-old boy in the group, who had turned them away. The rest of the group then discussed driving to another friend’s house. One of them – who cannot be named for legal reasons – tried to snatch the keys from her and advised her not to drive, but she ignored the advice.

Ms Edmondson lost control of the car as she turned to ask for directions from the passengers in the back of the car. Medical tests found her to be one-and-a-half times over the legal drink drive limit.

At an earlier hearing, Ms Edmondson had admitted one charge of causing death by careless driving, having consumed excess alcohol, and was banned from driving for four years.

On Friday (09/10/09) at Oxford Crown Court, Ms Edmondson was sentenced to 28 months in jail.

Judge Patrick Eccles said:

'Whatever sentence is passed of detention, the court can only hope that if it stops one young person picking up the keys after a party and driving home, something has been achieved.'

'You did not have the intention of drinking excess alcohol, but simply having a good time.'

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