Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
FEUDING YOB RACERS KILLED MUM-OF-FIVE
Head-on collision after 70mph chase
A DRIVER seen laughing at the wheel as another yob chased him through a town at 70mph killed a mother of five in a head-on smash.
Joanne Bailey-collinge, 34, was going to a barbecue with her husband and two of her kids when she suffered multiple injuries, dying in hospital.
Lewis Fisher, 21, had lost control of his Mercedes C220 while being tailgated and rammed by Joseph Pownall.
Pownall, 27, gave chase in his pick-up truck after one of Fisher’s passengers, who he was feuding with, smashed his rear window outside a pub.
Witness Olga Larson said: “I saw the driver of the Mercedes not even looking ahead, he was looking in the rear mirror and smiling and laughing. I said to my husband if they didn’t cause an accident it would be a miracle, it was unavoidable.”
For two and a half miles, the pair hit 70mph in 30mph zones and Fisher, who had no licence or insurance, veered into the opposite lane. His borrowed car ploughed into Joanne’s VW Polo and Pownall then ran into the back of him.
As Joanne lay dying, Pownall fled the scene and returned to the pub in Wigan, Gtr Manchester, in April to concoct a story about his VW Amarok being stolen. Joanne’s husband Andy, 29, fractured his ribs and forearm and her daughter Kenzie, 12, had serious arm, leg and hip injuries. Their daughter Autumn, four, fractured her collarbone.
In a statement, Mr Collinge told Manchester crown court: “I have an image of my wife as she looked at me and I knew she was dying.”
Pownall, of Golborne, Wigan, admitted death and serious injury by dangerous driving, and conspiracy to pervert justice. He got 12 years and a 10-and-a-half-year ban.
Fisher, also of Wigan, was convicted of death and serious injury by dangerous driving. He got 11 years and a 10-year ban. Judge Richard Mansell QC said: “This was a prolonged, persistent and deliberate course of very bad driving.”