This is the shocking moment a London Stock Exchange IT executive driving a Tesla caused a 100mph motorway crash with a new mother while high on cannabis.
Dramatic dashcam footage shows Josselin Herjean, 51, from Hamble, Hampshire, ramming his £50,000 electric motor into the back of a BMW carrying Kirsty Skinner as she returned from hospital after the birth of her daughter.
The clip shows Herjean swerving from the center lane to the outer lane at high speed before plowing into the back of the white car, sending it into the central reservation and then into the air on the M27 in Southampton in October last year .
As the Tesla slows after the terrifying crash, the BMW – which was carrying Ms Skinner, her partner Jamie Swinfield and her three other children aged five, three and one – drives uncontrollably across the roadway in a cloud of smoke.
The ‘traumatised’ family returned home after Mrs Skinner was given birth via caesarean section – and Southampton Crown Court heard she screamed ‘my babies’ and clutched her stomach during the impact.
Tesla driver Josselin Herjean was pictured outside Southampton Crown Court yesterday
Kirsty Skinner returned from hospital last October after the birth of her daughter
A nurse who witnessed the crash told the court that Herjean showed “no compassion” for the family and when she went to check on him he “threw clothes” from his car.
The court heard at the time that Herjean was in the middle of a psychotic episode due to the stress of working in the ‘high-pressure’ environment of the stock exchange.
At the hearing where the video was shown, the successful IT risk management specialist was given a suspended prison sentence and disqualified from driving for 18 months after a judge said it was a ‘minor miracle’ that no one was injured in the collision .
Adrian Fleming, prosecuting, told the court that witness Eleanor Randall, who was also driving on the M27 at the time, “saw a red colored Tesla overtaking a vehicle at a very high speed – she estimated in excess of 100 miles per hour.”
According to Ms Randall, a BMW “at about 75mph” began performing a “perfectly normal overtaking manoeuvre” towards the fourth lane of the motorway.
Mr Fleming continued: ‘What happened next was that the Tesla, which was still traveling at a very high speed, drove towards lane four without warning and in an erratic manner.
1) Dramatic dashcam footage shows the moments leading up to the crash in Southampton
‘Then the BMW hit the rear. The car shot forward, then hit the median and the rear of the car went into the air.”
Herjean crashed into the car carrying Jamie Swinfield, Mrs Skinner – whose newborn baby was still in hospital – and their three other children.
After the collision, Ms. Randall went to the Tesla and discovered that “Mr. Herjean was throwing clothing from the vehicle onto the roadway.”
Ms Randall then went to the BMW where she saw a ‘female passenger’, Ms Skinner, shouting: ‘My babies’.
The prosecutor added: ‘The woman in the passenger seat was holding her stomach because she had just had a caesarean section.’
Mr. Fleming checked on the mother and informed her that she was not injured.
2) The video shows how Herjean swerves from the middle lane to the outer lane at high speed
The nurse then returned to Herjean who was now “unpacking items from the trunk of his car” and she reported that she “could smell cannabis.”
The court heard Herjean ‘showed no sympathy’ and ‘did not check on the family in the BMW’.
According to the nurse, when she told the driver he was going “over 100 miles per hour,” he “just shrugged his shoulders.”
The court heard the family returned from hospital after having just given birth to their daughter.
In a victim impact statement read out in court, Mr Swinfield said his newborn daughter ‘could easily have been orphaned’ and that the impact of the crash felt like he had been ‘punched in the head’.
He added: “This incident has traumatized me and my family. I felt like I almost lost my family. I look at my three kids when I put them to bed and I get upset.”
3) The video then shows Herjean’s Tesla plowing into the back of the white BMW vehicle
Outlining the case, Mr Fleming said: ‘There is significant excessive speed in pulling out and a very dangerous manoeuvre.
‘(Herjean) was tested at the scene and was negative for alcohol but positive for cannabis. Back at the police station he failed to provide a blood sample.”
Grace McConnell, representing Herjean, told the court he was experiencing a psychotic episode at the time of the incident due to the stress of work.
She told the court Herjean worked as an IT risk manager specialist at the London Stock Exchange.
Mrs McConnell added: ‘(He was working under) extremely high pressure and it was this pressure of work that led to this episode in his life and the situation he found himself in last October.
“He experienced fear about who he was and where he was at that moment.”
4) The impact sends the BMW into the central reservation and then into the air onto the M27
Herjean pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and failing to provide a sample for analysis.
At Herjean’s sentencing, Recorder Stefan Ramel said that upon impact, Mr Swinfield’s children and partner ‘began to cry hysterically’.
He added: ‘It is a minor miracle that none of them were seriously injured in the collision you caused.
‘Mr Swinfield has lost confidence in his driving and said he gets upset when he puts his three children to bed.’
Herjean was sentenced to 16 weeks in prison, suspended for a year and disqualified from driving for 18 months.
He was also ordered to carry out 130 hours of unpaid work, carry out 15 days of rehabilitation activity and pay £425 in court costs.