Driver, 19, Filmed Inhaling Laughing Gas Before 100 Mph Crash Pleads Guilty to Killing 3 Teenage Friends

Mar. 15, 2025

Ethan Goddard, Elliot Pullen and Daniel Hancock.Photo:Thames Valley Police

Thames Valley Police

A teenager has pleaded guilty to killing his three friends in a high-speed car crash after inhaling laughing gas.

The collision happened shortly after midnight on June 20, 2023, after Johnson drove his BMW 3 Series at speeds approaching 100 mph and “overtook a vehicle” in Marcham, Oxfordshire, with passengers Ethan Goddard and Daniel Hancock, both 18, and Elliot Pullen, 17, in tow. He then “lost control” of his car and hit a lamppost, stone wall and a large tree, killing his three friends, per the release.

Thomas Johnson.Thames Valley Police

“This was without a doubt one of the most catastrophic and tragic collisions I have ever investigated. The speeds at which Johnson was driving were staggering, particularly given the road he was driving on,” Senior Investigating Officer Detective Sergeant Tony Jenkins of the Serious Collision Investigation Unit said, adding of Johnson, “He did not set out that night to harm anyone, that was never our case. But his decisions did directly and tragically result in the deaths of Ethan, Elliot and Daniel.”

Johnson, who was also critically injured, was sentenced to nine years and four months in jail and disqualified from driving for 11 years and 11 weeks, according to the release.

Thomas Johnson’s BMW following the collision.Thames Valley Police

While being interviewed in November 2023, Johnson accepted he was the driver of the vehicle, though he claimed that he did not remember any of the events leading up to the crash or the incident itself, according to police.

Johnson had had his license for less than a year at the time of the incident, theBBCreported. He was hospitalized for several months with critical injuries from the crash.

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Per the BBC, Goddard’s mother said that “a massive hole” has been left in the family following the tragedy. Hancock’s father added, “It’s very very painful, it’s 18 months on now and it never leaves you.”

source: people.com