A 19-year-old from Sheffield, England, will spend five years behind bars for causing a car crash that killed his best friend. Corey Owen-Cooper was sentenced after pleading guilty to the death of Joshua Atkins, who was only 17 years old. The crash happened on November 11, 2023, which was just 24 hours after Owen-Cooper got his driver’s license.
According to People, Atkins passed away three days after the accident. Owen-Cooper was going about 53 mph on a street where the speed limit was only 20 mph when he lost control of the car. South Yorkshire Police said that right after the crash, Owen-Cooper’s first words were, “I think I have killed him … I have killed my best friend.”
Police explained that Owen-Cooper had been “embracing his new-found freedom after passing his driving test the day before, and had gone out with his friends to [socialize] in their vehicles” before everything went wrong.
This is what can happen when someone gets too confident too fast
Owen-Cooper was behind the wheel of a Fiat Punto that belonged to someone in his family, and he spent the evening driving around town, dropping friends off at different places and meeting up with others at a parking lot. People who saw him at the parking lot told police he was doing donuts and racing around at scary speeds. One person was so worried they said Owen-Cooper “thinks he has nine lives.”
Atkins was in the front seat next to Owen-Cooper, and their friend Gabriel Wiggett was sitting in the back. Owen-Cooper took a turn too fast and couldn’t handle it, so the car went off the road and smashed into some barriers.
The impact was so bad that the car flipped over and landed on its roof. Owen-Cooper managed to climb out, but the other two were stuck inside. Other people driving by stopped their cars and rushed over to help. When they saw that Atkins wasn’t breathing, they started doing CPR to try to save him. But, it turned out to be one of those lethal accidents.
Ambulances came and took both Atkins and Wiggett to the hospital. Doctors did everything they could, but Atkins died from his injuries three days later. Wiggett also got badly hurt and had to stay in the hospital for a long time to recover.
Police investigators looked into what caused the crash and figured out that Owen-Cooper was going way too fast, which is why he couldn’t control the car. Video from inside the car showed that several warning lights had been on for about an hour and a half before the crash, but those problems didn’t actually cause the accident.
Inspector Kieran Frain talked about the case after Owen-Cooper was sentenced. He said, “Josh’s life was taken from him, and his family will continue to grieve his loss forever, but the life of Corey Owen-Cooper will also never be the same.” He also pointed out that Owen-Cooper “didn’t set out that evening to kill anyone but he did, through a lack of maturity, responsibility and an increase in risk taking.”
Along with going to prison, Owen-Cooper can’t drive for seven years and three months, and when that time is up, he’ll have to take a special test before he can get his license back. Something good did come from this terrible situation though.
Atkins became an organ donor after he died, and his organs saved four people’s lives. His heart went to a man in his 40s, his liver helped a man in his 50s, and his kidneys were given to a man and a woman who were both in their 20s.
Now Atkins’ family wants to make sure other young people understand how serious it is to drive a car. His aunt, Claire Chapman, spoke for the family outside the courthouse and said, “Josh was taken from us in the most senseless way, killed by dangerous driving that should never have happened.”
The family hopes that what happened to Atkins will make other drivers think twice before taking risks on the road. Other tragic cases have also reminded communities about the importance of safety, including when video evidence helped police solve the mystery of a missing college student.
Published: Nov 10, 2025 02:30 pm