Two teenagers died after they were flung from the back of a van which had been fitted with a dangerous and crude home-made bench seat.

Hinges and wooden screws had been used to secure the bench in the Vauxhall Astra van and a court heard there were no seatbelts fitted to the bench.

Five teenagers were thrown from the van when it crossed the road and was involved in a collision with an on-coming pick-up truck on the A120 in November last year.

Nikita Clark, 13, and 19-year-old Joelene Mitchell, both of Coggeshall Road, Braintree, died and the others were all injured, Chelmsford Crown Court heard.

The driver of the van - Joseph Davies, 20 - had never checked the seat but the court heard it was clearly in a dangerous condition and collapsed on impact with the other vehicle.

Davies admitted two charges of causing death by dangerous driving and was jailed for a total of 18 months.

"There is no criticism of your driving but it must have been obvious to anyone that if there had been an accident then the passengers would be rattling around in the back of the vehicle, and that is indeed what happened - tragically for these two young girls," Judge Peter Dedman told Davies.

The court heard the two teenagers, who both lived in Coggeshall Road, Braintree, were among eight young people in the van, which was being driven by Davies on the A120 near Dunmow on November 20 last year.

They were on their way to the Epping Forest Country Club when the accident took place shortly before 10pm half-a-mile east of the Braintree Road junction.

Four of the girls were sitting on the badly-fitted seat with two others sitting on the floor. Davies and a friend were in the front seats.

"Near Stebbingford, the van crossed the road into the path of a Peugeot pick-up truck driven by Richard Claydon," John Dodd, prosecuting, told the court.

"He saw the on-coming vehicle and took avoiding action by driving on to the grass verge on the side of the road.

"He did not escape, there was a collision and the force of the impact burst open the rear doors, the seat collapsed and five of the six girls in the rear were flung out.

"Two young people tragically died as a result and the three others were injured," Mr Dodd told the court.

After the crash, Davies, from Hepworth Road, Barningham, near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, told police Mr Claydon's vehicle had crossed the road into the path of his van.

He later admitted this was wrong when police told him about their reconstruction of the accident.

Police and Vauxhall experts examined the Astra and said the bench seat had been poorly fitted.

"It was of crude construction, a Heath-Robinson affair with hinges used to secure it to the vehicle," Mr Dodd said.

Davies told police the van had been bought with the seat already fitted and admitted he had never checked to see if it was safe.

Christopher Sutton-Mattocks, mitigating, said the incident had been a tragedy and had left Davies shocked and devastated. Davies received head injuries in the accident.

"The cause may never be known. He always assumed the back seat was safe but he made a terrible error of judgement in allowing so many people to get into his van," he added.

As well as the 18-month sentence, Davies was banned from driving for three years and told to take an extended driving test.

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