Student ploughed Range Rover into taxi at 94mph in horrific M6 crash
19-year-old hit 99mph in rain before fleeing as cab driver was left with terrible injuries
ATEENAGER ploughed a Range Rover into a taxi at 94mph on the M6 hard shoulder and then fled – leaving the cabbie fighting for his life after he had stopped to help a friend.
Ben Kerr ran from the scene after crashing on the northbound carriageway approaching Spaghetti Junction in Birmingham, while Usman Waheed was nearly killed after being struck by his own ricocheting vehicle.
Kerr, 19 and from Leytonstone, London, hid from police in a gully before being chased and arrested. At the police station he refused to provide a breath sample.
The teenager, a student at University of Leicester, pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving and failing to provide a specimen. Birmingham Crown Court heard that at around 4am on November 1 last year Mr Waheed was returning from Birmingham Airport when he saw a colleague had pulled over on the hard shoulder between Junctions 5 and 6.
He pulled up in front of him to check he was okay before returning to his own vehicle.
Kerr had been returning from a friend’s birthday party the previous night, where he claimed to have consumed his last alcoholic drink at 6pm.
Fellow motorists, who had slowed to around 60mph due to the heavy rain on the night, witnessed him zoom past with one describing him as a ‘lunatic’, prosecutor Ian Ball said. CCTV captured him reaching speeds of 99mph while the point of collision was clocked at 94mph. Kerr braked as he changed lanes but admitted losing control of the Range Rover Evoque, which belonged to his cousin, before it ploughed into the taxi. He then fled from the scene and tossed his mobile phone over the side railings. When officers persuaded Kerr to stop running and pinned him down they could smell alcohol on him, said Mr Ball.
Mr Waheed was rushed to hospital having suffered a catalogue of injuries including a fractured skull, broken ribs, broken shoulder blades, partially collapsed lungs and a broken pelvis. He has had multiple operations but was discharged from hospital in March due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Judge Francis Laird QC said: “He stopped as a good Samaritan to help his colleague and that’s why he was walking on the hard shoulder. A more tragic set of circumstances involving a collision on the motorway, it is hard to imagine.”
Describing the victim’s injuries as ‘catastrophic’ he added: “He can’t walk without crutches. He is in constant pain which interrupts his sleep. His brain injury affects his memory and he is concerned he will never be able to return to the sort of heavy manual work that he carried out before the accident.”
Kerr avoided an immediate prison term and was sentenced to 22 months in a Youth Offenders’ Institute, suspended for two years.
Kerr must also complete 20 days of rehabilitation activity and 180 hours of unpaid work.
He was disqualified from driving for a period of four years and also ordered to pay £425 in costs.