A schoolboy suffered life-changing injuries after a dangerous driver smashed into him as he waited for a bus.

The child - who is not being named - spent months in hospital after the 2022 collision in Kingston-upon-Thames, south-west London.

Driver Lee Nelhams has now been jailed for 35 months over the horror crash, after admitting causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

Kingston Crown Court heard the 34-year-old lost control of his Vauxhall Corsa while overtaking other cars on Tudor Drive.

He then smashed into a bus stop - hitting the boy, who was waiting.

Two years away from his GCSEs, he was rushed to hospital where he was sedated for two weeks and remained in hospital for nearly three months.

Doctors found he had suffered 300ml of blood loss resulting from a bleed on his brain, a skull fracture, a leg injury, and a fractured eye socket causing a loss of vision.

Crime scene photographs taken hours after the crash show a Corsa, which has rotated 180-degrees, stopped next to the destroyed bus stop and bloodied school uniform.

In a victim impact statement written by the boy's father, the court heard that the 6ft 4ins boy's weight fell dangerously low - to just 30kg - and he would regularly suffer from hallucinations and violent fits during the months he was in hospital.

He then had to fall behind a year in school and faced severe anxiety as a result of his injuries, which meant he was left with 'significant head scars' and wore an eye patch for some time.

In his statement, the distraught father said: "He has become lonely and isolated from children his age.

"He gets glimpses of normality when he is with his friends, but loses it and becomes withdrawn when he returns to treatment that reminds him of his injuries and the issues that he faces.

"His injuries, the circumstances, and the restrictions placed upon him constantly remind him of what happened, and this drags him down."

The court heard Nelhams had initially entered a plea of not guilty when he was arraigned in 2025, but changed his plea to guilty in June this year.

Mitigating, defence barrister Neil Fitzgibbon said the crash was as a result of a 'singular moment of loss of judgement' and that Nelhams had 'immediately began to dial 999' following the crash.

He argued that Nelhams had been completed an overtake of two cars going at an estimated speed 'of about 10mph' on the 20mph road at the time of the crash, while other drivers were 'tooting their horns', before he 'lost traction'.

Mr Fitzgibbon said Nelhams had been driving a works van for two-and-a-half years following the crash and was previously of good character, adding: "The defendant is deeply apologetic to [the boy] and his family, and there are few words he can say to me to express the genuineness of his regret and internal sorrow for what he did."

Judge Rajeev Shetty ordered Nelhams to serve an immediate sentence of 35 months' imprisonment.

He will be eligible to be released on licence after serving half of his sentence in custody.

Judge Shetty said: "This of course is a very serious offence.

"I promise you and I promise the family that it is not a decision I have taken lightly or without difficulty. There will clearly be no winners in this case whatever I decide to do.

"The real problem here is that in your moment of madness your dangerous driving when in control of a potentially lethal vehicle has caused the worst kind of damage to a wholly innocent victim.

"That damage is not just physical but impairs his whole childhood, his prospects, and indeed his very life.

"The public have to know that when someone drives dangerously and it causes such huge life changing trauma and ramifications that the appropriate punishment is delivered by the justice system."

The judge also ordered that Nelhams be banned from driving for four years, with an extension period of 17 and a half months, half way through his sentence.

The schoolboy now hopes to complete university either in a supported environment or while living at home, due to the continuing impact of his injuries.