6 die in late night taxi crash horror
‘The road is used as a racetrack’
SIX people were killed yesterday in a ‘harrowing’ crash – including a taxi driver with six children, the youngest of whom turns four today.
The pile-up involved three cars on a city dual carriageway that is said to be treated as a racetrack.
Four men were thrown from one car, three of whom died and the fourth left in a critical condition last night.
The other fatalities were cabbie Imtiaz Mohammed, 33, and his two passengers, a man and a woman. A couple in a third car, which was badly damaged, escaped serious injury.
Three other vehicles were involved in a second collision as traffic braked to avoid the pile-up, which took place at 1am in an underpass in Birmingham.
In total, ambulance crews treated 13 injured people.
Some witnesses were criticised after posting gruesome photographs of the scene on social media, including one shot of a casualty trapped beneath Mr Mohammed’s taxi. Another showed two bodies lying on the road. Facebook was also under fire after a video showing bodies at the scene was still circulating on the site last night, having been viewed 4,000 times.
West Midlands Police described the crash scene as ‘very difficult and upsetting’.
Jason Campbell, the area commander for West Midlands Fire Service, said the ‘horrific’ accident was complex and ‘spread over some distance’.
Mr Mohammed’s brother, Noorshad, 32, said the cabbie was on his last job of the night and had just spoken to his wife, Nargas Gul, when he died.
He added: ‘That was the last time she spoke to him. He was going to come home. He rang his wife at 1am, and they were going to have something to eat. And then that was it.’
Mr Mohammed’s cousin, Noor Khan, 26 said: ‘The saddest thing is he was looking to leave taxis in the next month.’
British-born Mr Mohammed, of Small Heath, had five daughters and a son aged three to 14, and worked for Castle Cars.
Another brother, Noor Khan, said: ‘Imtiaz married young, raised a family; he’s got properties and was doing taxi – working, grafting from a young age.’
One of the other victims was named as Tauqeer Hussain by neighbours in Small Heath.
Markings on the road made by police crash investigators suggest that at least one vehicle had crossed the kerbed central reservation of the underpass, but police said it was too early to confirm whether a head- on collision had taken place, or whether a car crossed to the opposite side of the road as a result of the crash.
The Belgrave Middleway underpass has a 40mph speed limit and is covered by speed cameras at each end.
But one camera, near a fastfood restaurant, was said to be inoperative. A resident who lives nearby said: ‘The road is used as a racetrack by younger drivers.
‘People know that the camera on the McDonald’s side of the road does not work so they go at whatever speed they like.
‘It’s common to see cars racing each other along here.’
The underpass is one of the busiest roads in Birmingham and forms part of the ring-road around the city centre.
Lizzy Bowers, 18, from London, was in the McDonald’s when she heard two loud bangs. She said: ‘Everyone abandoned their cars and people flocked from everywhere.
‘There was two people lying lifeless about 20ft apart and then a taxi squashed up the wall against another car, which was almost unrecognisable.
‘I saw at least two people trapped under the taxi.’