Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Taxi driver killed on last job of the night
A TAXI driver killed in a multicar crash in Birmingham phoned his wife to say he would be home after his last fare before the horror smash, his brother said.
Father-of-six Imtiaz Mohammed was described by grieving relatives as a “happy, loving and friendly guy” after he was one of six people killed in the pile-up near the city centre in the early hours of Sunday.
Three men were killed when they were thrown out of their car while the taxi driver and his two passengers, a man and woman, died after the vehicle was left on its side.
A fourth man travelling in the car, thought to be an Audi S3, remains in a critical condition at the city’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
The taxi driver’s younger brother Noorshad Mohammed said his sibling rang his wife Nargas Gul to tell her he would be coming home just before the crash. It would be the last time they spoke.
The 32-year-old said: “It was his last job of the night. “That was the last time she spoke to him.”
Surrounded by the 33-year-old’s other relatives at the family home, father Ikhtiar Mohammed recalled how his “heart sank” as police knocked on his door at 5am on Sunday.
The 65-year-old said: “I knew there was something wrong, as soon as I saw them. I thought to myself, ‘which of my sons is hurt’, I just knew something was seriously wrong.”
He said that Mr Mohammed’s wife, Ms Gul, was still in deep shock while relatives struggled with how to break the news to the couple’s five daughters and son, all aged under 15.
One of their girls had been due to celebrate her fourth birthday on Monday.
Older sister Nassrin Bibi paid tribute to her brother and said the family had been “shattered” by what had happened.
Mr Mohammed worked for local firm Castle Cars, which said in a statement: “Imtiaz was a wonderful, young, hardworking family man”, who was “loved and respected by all”.
At the scene last night, three of the lesser damaged cars were being removed, as police continued to follow up various lines of investigation including the condition of the road near Edgbaston.
Superintendent Sean Phillips, from West Midlands Police, said: “It is way too early to speculate on the causes of the accident.”