Driver who hit Callum ‘couldn’t stop on M-way’
A MAN charged with dangerous driving in relation to the death of Callum Rycroft on the M62 last year will say he ‘couldn’t stop on a motorway,’ a court has heard.
Callum, 12, was hit by a car while attempting to run across the motorway at night while following his father Matthew, who had drunkenly crashed the vehicle they were in and attempted to flee the scene on foot.
Rycroft was jailed for 10 years last November for the manslaughter of his son.
The driver of the car that hit Callum, Shahid Ilyas, has been charged with driving a Toyota C-HR dangerously on the M62 and Whitehall Road, Cleckheaton, on August 5 last year. He is also accused of failing to stop after a road accident and failing to report that accident.
Ilyas, 48, of Moorfield Chase, Farnworth, Bolton, pleaded not guilty to the charges when he appeared at Bradford Crown Court on Tuesday. Judge Sophie McKone set a trial date of October 10.
Harry Crowson, representing Ilyas, told the court: “He says he couldn’t stop on the motorway. He stopped at the first place that seemed safe to him.” Callum was hit by a car while attempting to cross between junctions 25 and 26 of the M62 at about 9.50pm on August 5.
Leeds Crown Court previously heard Rycroft was driving drunk on the motorway on August 5 when he collided with a barrier and then overturned his Audi Q5 on the slip road to Hartshead Moor services, near Huddersfield.
The Crown Prosecution Service said Callum had no speed awareness due to his autism and ‘should have been under the protection of his father,’ who instead ran across the motorway and did not look back for his son who had been struck while trying to run with him.