AN UNQUALIFIED driver who crashed a car then ran off while her passenger was left fighting for her life has been jailed.

Louisse Chism had been driving a black Ford Fiesta along Creeksea Ferry Road, Canewdon, when she lost control.

The car veered off the road, and ended up in a ditch.

One of the passengers, a now 19 year-old woman, was thrown from the car and left with life-threatening injuries.

She had sustained broke ribs, a fractured back, broken pelvis, fractured breast bone, a punctured lung, and a fractured shoulder blade.

Three other people in the car – two teenage boys and a teenage girl – were also taken to hospital but were not seriously injured.

Chism, 19, ran from the scene but was arrested at her home address Broomfield Road, Leigh.

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Detectives found she owned the car but had not passed her test and should not have been driving unsupervised.

Chism was charged with a number of offences and appeared at Basildon Crown Court in November.

She admitted to causing serious injury by dangerous driving, failing to stop following a collision, failing to report a collision, driving without insurance and driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence.

At the same court on Monday, she was jailed for two years and banned from driving for five.

Speaking about the crash which occurred back on April 3 last year, sergeant Phil Roberts from Chigwell Roads Policing Unit, said: “Louisse Chism had not passed her driving test and should have not been behind the wheel unsupervised.

“She drove recklessly, leaving a friend with injuries that will affect her for years to come.

“Not only that but, instead of staying to help and take responsibility for what she did, she ran off.

“Due to our investigation she was left with no option but to admit what had happened.

“She now faces time behind bars and it will be a long time until she can get behind the wheel of a car again.”