..IN THE
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CABBIE HIT BY TEEN DRIVER ON M6 HARD SHOULDER SUFFERS CATASTROPHIC INJURIES IN 94MPH SMASH
A teenager smashed into a taxi at 94mph on the M6 hard shoulder causing it to catapult into the driver who was standing next to it after stopping to help a friend. Ben Kerr, 19, ran from the scene after the crash and hid from police in a gully before being chased and arrest- ed. At the police station he refused to provide a breath sample. Kerr, a student at University of Leices- ter, pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving and failing to provide a speci-
men. However, he es- caped an immediate prison term and was sentenced to 22 months in a Youth Offenders Institute suspended for two years. Mr Waheed had been returning from Birmingham Airport at around 4am on 1 November last year when he saw that a colleague
had
pulled over on the hard shoulder so stopped to check that he was okay. Meanwhile Kerr had been returning from a party the previous night, where he claimed to have consumed his last
Ben Kerr fled the crash scene
alcoholic drink at 6pm.
Fellow
motorists, who were driving slowly due
to heavy rain wit- nessed him zoom past them with one describing him as a ‘lunatic’. CCTV cap- tured him reaching speeds of 99mph while the point of collision was clocked at 94mph. Kerr admitted losing control of the Range Rover, which belonged to his cousin, before it ploughed into the taxi. As he fled the scene he tossed his mobile phone over the side railings. When officers per- suaded Kerr to stop running and pinned him they could ‘smell alcohol on
him’, Birmingham Crown Court heard. Mr Waheed was rushed to hospital having suffered a fractured skull, bro- ken ribs, broken shoulder blades, partially collapsed lungs and a broken pelvis. Judge Francis Laird QC, passing sen- tence, said: “He stopped to help his colleague and that’s why he was walking on the hard shoul- der. A more tragic set of circumstances involving a collision on the motorway, it is hard to imagine.” Describing the vic- tim’s injuries as ‘catastrophic’ he
added: “He can’t walk without crutch- es. He is in constant pain which inter- rupts his sleep and his brain injury. Although he will make improvements over time, they will take years to be achieved and it's possible they will never fully be achieved.” Kerr, of Leyton- stone, London, must also complete 20 days of rehabilita- tion activity and 180 hours of unpaid work. He was dis- qualified from driving for a period of four years and also ordered to pay £425 in court costs.
AUGUST 2020
25
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