Husband drove past crash where his wife lay dying
A GRIEVING husband told how he drove past a fatal car crash without knowing the victim was his wife.
Bolaji Onifade saw paramedics tending to a pedestrian on his way to work. But he only discovered his wife Ibizugbe had been hit by a speeding driver when he arrived at his IT firm 20 minutes later.
Receptionist Mrs Onifade, 38, died from multiple injuries after being hit by a £200,000 Mercedes G-Wagon travelling at speeds of up to 91mph.
Driver Mohammed Chowdhury, 22, had been talking on his phone.
Horror
In a statement, Mr Onifade, 43, told Manchester Crown Court: “That day changed my life forever. When I heard the news, I felt like I had come to the end of the world. What will I do without my wife?
“People should not be able to drive such high-powered cars when they are so young.
“If he had been driving sensibly, I would still have my wife.” Mr Onifade said when he saw the crash scene on his way to work in Salford in 2021, “something told me to call my wife, but she didn’t pick up”.
He added: “When I eventually got to work, I got a call from my wife’s employer to say that there had been an incident and that police were going to my address.” Chowdhury, who admitted causing death by dangerous driving, was jailed for five-and-a-half years and banned from getting behind the wheel for eight years, nine months. Before the horror collision in Manchester, he had been racing down a busy dual carriageway at speeds so great, one car shook as he drove past, the court was told. Mrs Onifade, who was on her way to catch a bus after finishing work, was struck as she crossed the road. Judge Timothy Clayson told Chowdhury, of Chadderton, near Oldham: “It is clear that you have a tendency for sensation-seeking and risktaking behaviour.
“You were distracted and driving at a grossly excessive speed in a built-up area – and this resulted in disastrous consequences.”