Life-changing injuries or death. These are not typically the outcomes most people think will happen to themselves when they set out for a walk or a routine drive on any given day.
But sadly those are all too often the tragic consequences for complete innocents thanks to dangerous drivers on our roads. We have covered far too many cases in 2024 of speeding and intoxicated motorists causing catastrophic collisions, with pedestrians or other drivers being killed or suffering devastating injuries.
The culprits are quite simply selfish, reckless fools whose hollow apologies and crocodile tears in court are far too little too late for the families they’ve torn apart. And it is no surprise that awful collisions often involve high-powered cars, that are too much to handle for the irresponsible man-childs behind the wheel.
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Below we have rounded up the main cases of causing serious injury or death by dangerous driving we have covered from our region his year. Is it just a coincidence that BMWs featured more than any other car?
Shahbaz Khan
Shahbaz Khan
(Image: West Midlands Police)
Shahbaz Khan ploughed his BMW into a woman and child at a pedestrian crossing in Kings Heath. At the time he was doing triple the 20mph speed limit on the High Street and was high on drink and cocaine.
The 29-year-old saw people using the crossing but instead of slowing down he blasted his horn as he mowed down the two victims. They were a 21-year-old woman, who suffered multiple broken bones, and her eight-year-old brother, who suffered a life-threatening head injury. She had been walking him to school at the time of the incident at 8.50am on the day.
Khan sped away, mounted the kerb as he turned a corner and narrowly missed a cyclist during his escape but was arrested later that day. He was more than twice over the drink-drive limit and nearly four times the drug-driving threshold.
Khan, from Sparkbrook, admitted two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and was jailed for two years and six months. He was also banned from the road for three years and four months.
Kashif Khan
Kashif Khan
Coward driver Kashif Khan mowed down and killed cyclist Andel Goulbourne in July 2020 then fled the scene and flew to Pakistan within 24 hours. He was doing more than double the 30mph limit in a BMW on Washwood Heath Road in Saltley when he struck the 59-year-old great-grandfather. The victim was flung into the air and sent 50 metres down the road.
Khan, aged 24 at the time, initially got out and walked back towards the scene but then left after seeing the carnage he had caused. Less than 20 hours later he flew to Dubai, then later travelled to Pakistan where he got married, had children and shamelessly worked as a taxi driver.
He was arrested at Birmingham Airport upon his return this year. Khan, now 28 and of Parkhouse Drive in Erdington, admitted causing death by dangerous driving and was sentenced to six years. He was also banned from driving for 12 years and ten and a half months.
Brandon Payne
Brandon Payne
Drink-driver Brandon Payne lost control of his Volvo, mounted the kerb and ploughed into a family on their way to feed the ducks in Brierley Hill. One of the victims was pregnant and had to have an emergency caesarean section while her baby was born with brain damage, which will be permanent.
Her partner suffered serious injuries including broken bones while her two-year-old son who was in a pushchair was also hurt. Payne, aged 24 and from Dudley, had just left a pub and was nearly two times over the drink-drive limit. He admitted three charges of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and was jailed for three years and four months.
Joe-Lewis Tyler
Joe-Lewis Tyler
Speeding drink-driver Joe-Lewis Tyler caused a crash in Worcester which killed three people, including a six-year-old boy. He hit speeds of 90mph on the 50mph Spetchley Road before he collided his BMW with a Ford Mondeo.
The occupants of the vehicle struck were Leo Painter, aged six, Courtney Hemming, 26, and Claire Adkins. 39. Tyler, of no fixed address, admitted three charges of causing death by dangerous driving, three offences of causing death whilst driving uninsured and one count of causing serious injury by dangerous driving. He was sentenced to 18 years.
Andrew Phillips and Vijay Kumar
Andrew Phillips and Vijay Kumar
(Image: West Midlands Police)
Speeding Mercedes driver Vijay Kumar burst through a red light in Snow Hill, Wolverhampton and swerved to avoid an 89-year-old woman crossing the road. But following closely behind him was Andrew Phillips who ploughed his Audi into the woman and caused her fatal injuries. He stayed at the scene while cowardly Kumar fled.
Phillips, aged 30, from Wolverhampton, admitted causing death by dangerous driving and was jailed for six years and eight months as well as banned from driving for eight years. Kumar, 23, also of Wolverhampton, admitted dangerous driving and was sentenced to one year and disqualified from getting behind the wheel for two years and six months.
Nicholas Adams
Nicholas Adams
(Image: WMP)
Nicholas Adams reversed his car over two elderly sisters leaving them trapped and fighting for their lives. The 57-year-old, who was banned from driving, was initially a passenger in the Vauxhall Insignia.
But after it was involved in a minor collision in the car park of The Dovecote pub in West Bromwich he jumped behind the wheel and sped backwards hitting the two victims, aged 76 and 82. Both suffered several broken bones and spent weeks in hospital.
Adams was convicted of two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving. He was sentenced to three years and 11 months as well as banned from driving for two years.
Cory Sewell
Cory Sewell
(Image: WMP)
Cory Sewell caused the death of his friend Hamse Ismali by crashing his Mercedes into a lampost in Rowley Regis while drink-driving and speeding. He had been travelling as fast as 92mph on he 30mph road before the collision, which also injured his two other passengers.
Mr Hamse, aged 28, was pronounced dead at the scene. Sewell told police ‘I’ve just seen my friend die because of me’. The 25-year-old from Hockley admitted causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving. He was sentenced to nine years and banned from driving for five years from the point of his release.
Muhammed Waqas
Muhammed Waqas
(Image: WMP)
Muhammed Waqas crashed his Audi SQ5 into a tree in Nechells and killed his 19-year-old passenger. He had been uninsured and travelling at up to 108mph before he lost control and hit the central reservation.
Waqas, of Dolphin Road, Birmingham admitted causing death by dangerous driving and causing death by driving while uninsured. He was sentenced to eight years.
Juraj Kozar
Juraj Kozar
(Image: West Midlands Police)
Juraj Kozar caused a high-speed crash in Wolverhampton then tried to flee the country on a ferry. He was driving a Suzuki at up to 93mph on the 30mph road before ploughing into a VW Polo.
He caused life-changing injuries to a woman in her 60s as well as his own passenger, aged 17. Kozar was arrested aboard a ferry which had already set sail from Kent.
The 29-year-old from Wolverhampton admitted two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, failing to stop after a collision and driving without insurance. He was jailed for four years and handed a seven-year driving ban.
Connor Jones
Connor Jones
(Image: West Midlands Police)
New driver Connor Jones inhaled laughing gas and smoked cannabis before killing his friend Kane Foster in a horror crash. The 21-year-old, who had only had a licence for four months, lost control of his Ford Focus in Gornal whilst doing almost double the 30mph speed limit.
He collided head-on with a Peugeot causing fatal injuries to 18-year-old Mr Foster as well as injuries to two female passengers. Jones, from Gornal, admitted causing death by dangerous driving and two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving. He was jailed for 12 years and banned from the roads for 13 years.
Ethan Holness and Frederick Rogers
Ethan Holness and Frederick Rogers
Two dangerous drivers and complete strangers caused a severe crash with each other in Walsall which killed James Sheridan. The 20-year-old victim was a backseat passenger in a stolen Ford Fiesta driven by Ethan Holness who was pelting along at 72mph on the 30mph route in Pelsall.
Travelling from the opposite direction in a stolen Volkswagen Golf was Frederick Rogers who was doing double the limit, drink-driving and ran a red light leading to the smash. Both men were convicted of causing death by dangerous driving and banned from the road.
Holness, aged 20, from Wolverhampton was jailed for seven years and six months. Rogers, aged 34, of Cheslyn Hay, was sentenced to ten years.
Thomas O’Brien-Wood
Thomas O’Brien-Wood
(Image: Warwickshire Police)
Thomas O’Brien-Wood caused the death of his passenger 20-year-old Harry Smart after crashing his Ford Fiesta into another vehicle head-on as he was entering the M42. He tested positive for alcohol and cocaine when detained by police.
Police had pursued him earlier due to the manner of his driving but were forced to abandon the chase and they lost him. The 21-year-old from The Beck in Dudley admitted causing death by dangerous driving. He was jailed for seven years and six months and banned from the road for eight years and nine months.
Arjun Dosanjh and Jacek Wiatrowski
Arjun Dosanjh and Jacek Wiatrowski
(Image: West Midlands Police)
Two men ‘driving competitively’ caused the death of 81-year-old Surinder Kaur as she was walking home from a gurdwara in Rowley Regis. After pulling up next to each other at a set of lights they both began speeding along the Oldbury Road.
Wiatrowski, aged 51, braked in his BMW aggressively as he spotted Mrs Kaur, who he narrowly missed, but caused Dosanjh, 26, to swerve his Mini on to the wrong side of the road and plough into her.
Both admitted causing death by dangerous driving. Wiatrowski, of Wednesbury, and Dosanjh, from Oldbury, were each jailed for six years and banned from the roads for eight years.
Mark Craig
Mark Craig
Mark Craig caused a head-on crash while three times over the drink-drive limit and travelling at more than double the speed limit. He veered his recently-bought BMW on to the wrong side of the Tile Cross Road in Birmingham and smashed into an Audi.
The family he hit had travelled from Lincolnshire on their way to Birmingham Airport to fly to Tenerife. Two of the victims were a couple in their 80s. The collision had a devastating long-lasting impact on their lives.
Craig, aged 40, from Small Heath, admitted three counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving. He was sentenced to three years and six months and was banned from driving for nine years and six months.
Shazad Alam
Shazad Alam
(Image: WMP)
Speeding BMW driver Shazad Alam ran over and killed 12-year-old Azaan Khan as he crossed Coventry Road in Yardley on his bicycle. He had been weaving in and out of traffic, using the bus lane to undertake other drivers and doing around 50 per cent above the speed limit before the collision.
The 34-year-old Jaguar Land Rover worker had twice been banned from the roads previously under the totting-up procedure. Alam, from Sheldon, admitted causing death by dangerous driving and was sentenced to eight years and nine months. He was also further disqualified from driving for seven years from the point he is released from prison.
Dhiya Al Maamoury
Dhiya Al Maamoury
(Image: West Midlands Police)
Dhiya Al Maamoury mowed down four people in his NIssan Skyline during an illegal car meet in Oldbury in November 2022. The 56-year-old was ‘cruising and showing off’ when he deliberately accelerated, forcing his tyres to spin.
He completely lost control as he ploughed into onlookers. Liberty Charris, aged 16, and Ben Corfield, 19, were killed while their friends Ebonie Parkes and Ethan Kilburn were seriously injured. Al Maamoury, of Evenlode Road, Solihull, admitted two counts of causing death by dangerous driving and two charges of causing serious injury by dangerous driving. He was sentenced to 13 years and six months as well as banned from driving for 14 years.