A teenager who killed his friend when he crashed his powerful pickup truck at more than twice the speed limit in torrential rain has been locked up for four years.

Kieran Simpson hit a patch of deep water at around 70mph and struck a brick wall and a parked car and “flattened” a 30mph sign, “rolling and twisting on its way”.

Jack Burmingham, 17, a front seat passenger with two other pals in the rear of the Mitsubishi L200 truck, died soon afterwards from head injuries.

The tragedy happened on London Road on the A2 near the junction with Playstool Road in Newington in May last year.

Prosecutor Martin Yale said: “The Crown say this was grossly excessive speed, well in excess of double the speed limit, in extremely poor driving conditions with torrential rain and standing and flowing water.”

Judge Julian Smith said the 18-year-old “drove in reckless defiance of those conditions”.

Simpson, of Gladwyn Close, Rainham, today admitted causing death by dangerous driving.

He will serve half of the sentence before being released on licence. The maximum for the offence is 14 years.

He was banned from driving for five-and-a-half years and will have to take an extended test before being allowed back on the road.

Maidstone Crown Court heard Simpson, who attended the Howard School with Jack, had been driving for less than a year and owned the truck for about six weeks.

He picked up Jack, Corby Simmons and Taylor Harrington in the early evening of Thursday, May 18 and the friends went to Hempstead Valley shopping centre in Gillingham.

Prosecutor Martin Yale said they then went for a drive. At one point, Simpson turned off his headlights in country lanes and switched them back on when he scared himself.

In the Sittingbourne area, he briefly joined the A249 where they saw there had been a collision, with emergency vehicles present.

Simpson then headed towards Rainham to go home on the A2, which has speed limits of 30mph and 40mph.

Mr Yale said the three passengers were not really paying attention as they were using their phones. They were all singing along to music.

Mr Simmons’ Snapchat app recorded the speed at 67.7mph. Footage from Jack’s phone showing the speed at 70mph was played in court.

“The first the passengers were aware of any difficulties was when they heard Mr Simpson saying ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa’,” said Mr Yale.

The truck swerved across the road and Simpson was later described as panicking.

“He had lost control of the truck which began to spin,” said Mr Yale. “Mr Harrington said it felt as if he had mixed up the accelerator and the brake pedal and sped up.”

The truck then went across the carriageway in London Road and crashed through the garden wall.

Mr Yale said Jack died at the scene. Simpson and the two others were also injured.

CCTV footage from a house in London Road revealed the truck had been travelling at between 69-73mph as it passed.

An accident investigator concluded that had Simpson been travelling within the speed limit when he drove into standing water, he would not have lost control of the truck.

Jack's father Mark, 45, read a moving victim statement, telling of his family's devastation. There were also statements from his wife Kerry, 44, daughter Abbey, 15, and Mr Harrington and Mr Simmons.

Asked afterwards what he thought of the sentence, Mr Burmingham said: "All we could hope for was that he gets properly punished."

He added: "We were a really close family and did everything together. It is like losing a limb."

Judge Smith said Jack, of Plomley Close, Rainham, was a young man with potential and his death in devastating and shocking circumstances was overwhelming in its impact “such that the mind baulks at expressing it”.

But he stressed the punishment on Simpson “does not and could not measure the value of Jack’s life”.

He continued: “I am also conscious that I must sentence a young man of hitherto blameless character, who clearly did not intend the consequences, dreadful though they are, for his actions that night – someone with real potential who must nonetheless be punished for what he did.

“What is clear he was driving that night relatively shortly before loss of control and catastrophic impact, at a greatly excessive speed.

“What is clear he (Simpson) was driving that night relatively shortly before loss of control and catastrophic impact, at a greatly excessive speed" - Judge Julian Smith

“There can be no justification for driving at speed in those conditions. It may be said it was thrill seeking. Whatever it was, it was reckless. You hit that standing water at something like 70mph.

“Jack Burmingham died in a horrific crash. Your passengers were seriously physically injured as well as mentally scarred and damaged by what happened.

“You will go into custody and that is a massive blow. Your prospects in future are affected. I accept your sense of remorse is real and very great. You have lost a friend.

“You were a competent and generally safe driver. It is hard to fathom what provoked you to drive in this manner that night.

“It is not a case of simply greatly excessive speeding. It was in a combination with truly atrocious driving conditions.”