A driver has been jailed for killing a friend and injuring another when she crashed after an 80mph police chase.
India Thompson, 20, was thrown from a Vauxhall Astra when she crashed into a lamppost in Greyhound Lane, Streatham Vale.
The car was engulfed in flames early on March 28 last year and the aftermath was described as like a bomb site.
Passenger Shaunta Rhoden, 19, died from her injuries two days later and Kumarah Cyrus, 18, was badly hurt but survived.
Thompson, from Enfield, admitted causing the death and the serious injury by dangerous driving and was sentenced at the Old Bailey on Friday.
Prosecutor Amy Nicholson said: “She had no licence, no insurance and she was carrying five passengers so the vehicle was overloaded. The vehicle was on false cloned plates.
“It collided with a lamppost and flipped onto its rood, coming to rest in the garden of a property on Greyhound Lane having also collided and damaged a parked car, garden wall and ground floor of the property itself.
“A resident described the aftermath as total chaos and likened it as if a bomb had detonated.”
Ms Rhoden, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was pulled from the burning wreckage unconscious.
She was bleeding from a fatal head injury and never recovered consciousness.
The 18-year-old passenger sustained spinal, pelvic and orbital fractures and was unable to walk for months afterwards.
Just over a minute before the crash, Thompson’s vehicle had come to the attention of a police patrol on Streatham Common North.
Officers saw her making an “ill-considered” attempt to overtake another vehicle at speed and turn left.
They activated lights and sirens and set off in pursuit when the vehicle failed to stop.
The police car reached speeds of up to 83mph in an attempt to keep up with the Vauxhall.
The Vauxhall accelerated away, went over a speed bump, lifted into the air and landed upside down.
After the crash, Ms Cyrus said she had been at the birthday party of a cousin in Coulsdon and wanted to get a taxi home.
She said Thompson had offered to drive her home instead.
Reading from Mc Cyrus’s statement, Ms Nicholson said: “Everyone was screaming at the defendant to stop.
“Shaunta was screaming and shouting ‘stop’. The defendant said ‘I will get you out of this’.”
Ms Cyrus said she blacked out in the crash and when she came to felt pain everywhere in her body.
“If only India had listened to us that night and stopped, I would not have to say how I feel and would not be in this situation,” she said.
Ms Rhoden’s sister Sacha tearfully described how her younger sibling was the “glue” of the family and carer to their father.
In a statement, her father Norman Rhoden said: “Not only did you kill my daughter, you gave myself, her siblings, family and friends a whole life sentence.”
Sentencing, Judge John Hillen siad: “You gave no thought to the safety of your passengers, let alone the general public.
“Your friends were telling you to stop. You ignored them.”
He jailed Thompson for eight years and banned her for driving for 12 years and four months.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here