US citizen arrested in America a year after UK car crash which left nurse unable to walk

A US citizen who allegedly left a British nurse temporarily unable to walk after a car crash has been arrested in Texas a year after the collision.

Issac Calderon is due to appear in a US court on Monday over his potential extradition to the UK after being accused of causing serious injury by dangerous driving on 31 July 2023.

Elizabeth Donowho, a mental health nurse from Malvern, Worcestershire, was unable to walk for six weeks after breaking bones and suffering from multiple fractures in the crash on the A4103 near Shucknall, Herefordshire – including both ankles, her sternum and her right hand.

Calderon, who was 22 at the time of the crash, was not immediately arrested due to requiring medical attention for serious injuries.

He then left the UK on a commercial flight to Texas on 25 November ahead of a scheduled hearing at Kidderminster Magistrates’ Court at the end of last year.

In an email seen by Sky News on Monday, Ms Donowho was informed of Calderon’s arrest by West Mercia Police.

Reacting, the spokesman for Ms Donowho, Radd Seiger, said: “It is almost a year since Elizabeth suffered the crash which very nearly took her life.

“We do not know why the extradition process has taken so long but we are delighted to see that it is now under way and we look forward to Mr Calderon being returned to the UK shortly so that he can face our justice system.

“He is of course innocent of the charges he faces until proven otherwise.”

It is not known why Calderon was in the UK last year, but Ms Donowho was previously told by police that he had been visiting the British special forces base in Herefordshire when the crash happened.

The force said he was working on matters “that might come under the Official Secrets Act”.

In December 2023, Sky News tracked Calderon down at his parents’ house in Humble, Texas.

His father insisted at the time that he had been in the UK on a work visa, had worked at a warehouse, and the situation had been “blown out of proportion”.

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He said the family had been “contacted by the FBI” who were “talking about extradition”.

The case has been likened to that of Anne Sacoolas, the US spy who left the UK after killing teenager Harry Dunn in a crash in Northamptonshire in 2019.

Last month, Sacoolas apologised for the “tragic mistake” she made during an inquest into Mr Dunn’s death. The coroner later issued three prevention of future death notices in a bid to stop similar tragedies occurring.

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