A YOUNG driver shot out of a narrow country lane without slowing down and ploughed into the side of another car with such force that its engine block landed 20 metres from the scene.
Cowardly Jawid Fatehkhail then fled from the scene of the crash near Solihull, leaving the other driver with life-changing injuries and two of his own passengers also injured.
But at Warwick Crown Court, after pleading guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving, Fatehkhail (20) of Edmund Road, Birmingham, was jailed for just 22 months.
Prosecutor Justin Jarmola said that at around 5pm on October 9 last year, Caroline Wood was driving along Cut Throat Lane at Warings Green, near Solihull.
Coming along Salter Street, a very narrow country lane, at the same time was Fatehkhail driving a borrowed Ford Fiesta, for which he had no insurance and only a provisional licence.
He had been driving too fast, despite his four passengers pleading with him to slow down, and shot out into Cut Throat Lane without braking.
The Golf ploughed into the side of Mrs Wood’s Ford Fiesta with such force that its engine block was thrown 20 metres from the point of the crash, while the Golf rolled and ended up on its side.
Fatehkhail and two of his passengers climbed out and fled without checking on Mrs Wood or calling the emergency services, and abandoning his other two friends who were also injured.
Mrs Wood had ‘significant injuries’ including a broken collarbone, a fractured sternum and internal injuries for which she had to undergo a six-hour operation and was in hospital for two weeks.
One of the injured men left behind in the Golf had a dislocated hip which required a nine-day stay in hospital, while the other had a broken nose, said Mr Jarmola.
In a statement Mrs Wood, who is in her 60s, said the crash had affected her both physically and mentally – and on the few occasions she had been in a car since then, she has feared that oncoming cars were heading straight at her.
Mahan Manu, defending, said: “There was an element of showing off, but it’s not a case where he was racing with another driver. He failed to appreciate there was a give way marker.
“It is accepted it is an aggravating feature that following the accident he has got out of the vehicle and run off and has not checked on the other occupants or the occupant of the other vehicle, Caroline Wood.”
But suggesting he could be given a suspended sentence, Mr Manu said Fatehkhail had written an email of apology to Mrs Wood, and during the recent Covid-19 lockdown had helped to distribute food parcels.
Jailing Fatehkhail and banning him from driving for three years and 11 months, Judge Barry Berlin told him “That was a Wednesday at nearly five in the afternoon.
“You had four passengers in the car, and without slowing down at all at give way markings, you entered that junction at high speed and struck a white Fiesta to its nearside with considerable force.
“The results of that collision were devastating for Mrs Wood. She had very serious injuries indeed. They have been described as life-changing, and that is not an exaggeration.
“I have read her impact statement which is horrific. These were not just serious injuries, but life-changing injuries which could have proved fatal.
“You fled the scene, and simply left her there to her fate. I note the apology you have made, but it is a belated apology, there it assist you.
“If you were really sorry, you would have remained at the scene and called the police and ambulance.”
