Phone crash ‘like driving eyes closed’
A MOTORIST checking his phone when he killed two women “may as well have been driving with his eyes closed”, a court heard.
Mohmed Patel hit Rachel Murphy, 23, and Shelby Maher, 17, as they crossed a road in full sight.
Another motorist said Patel, 26, had overtaken him shortly before with a phone in his hand, rested on the steering wheel.
Judge Robert Altham told Preston crown court: “This was plainly an avoidable distraction. So distracted was he that at the point of collision, he may as well have been driving with his eyes closed.”
Patel, of Blackburn, Lancs, admitted careless but not dangerous driving.
He got six years’ jail for two counts of death by dangerous driving.