A driver who killed a student less than a minute after ending a video call on the A1 sobbed through her sentencing. Fiona Phippen has been jailed for four years and three months after smashing her car into a service station forecourt.
Lincoln Crown Court heard "graphic and shocking" CCTV footage showing Fiona Phippen's Nissan Qashqai striking psychology student Urwah Tanveer at speeds of up to 51mph, as the 20-year-old stood next to her family's stationary Mercedes.
Phippen wept in the dock throughout portions of her sentencing hearing, including when the court learned how her victim had been making plans for her graduation ceremony before she was killed. The 45-year-old mother-of-two, from Church Close in Great Wilbraham, Cambridgeshire, pleaded guilty in April to causing both death and serious injury by dangerous driving.
Judge Simon Hirst heard that Phippen narrowly missed Urwah's brother by inches. The collision left her 83-year-old grandmother, who was seated inside the Mercedes, with multiple fractures. Phippen maintained she had been distracted by another vehicle on the northbound A1 moments before the accident at Foston Services near Grantham in Lincolnshire, despite perfect road conditions on the afternoon of 29 June 2024, reports Cambridgeshire Live.
Urwah, from London, had secured a 2:1 degree from the capital's Queen Mary University and aspired to a career in the NHS, the court was told. The charity shop volunteer passed away in hospital the day following the crash, while her grandmother sustained injuries to her hand, chest and ribs.
Evidence heard by the court indicated Phippen had cruise control engaged and did not apply the brakes during the six seconds following her exit from the A1, while travelling at an "effectively constant" speed of between 41mph and 51mph. Sentencing Phippen, Judge Hirst noted it was accepted that a six-minute WhatsApp video call, conducted via a mobile mounted on the dashboard, had concluded 38 seconds prior to the collision.
Following victim impact statements, the judge addressed Phippen: "Exactly why this collision occurred is still unclear. I have heard from Urwah's parents and sister. It is clear from everything I have heard and have read about her that she was much-loved and will be missed for a very long time to come."
Judge Hirst also disqualified Phippen from driving for seven years and six weeks, stating: "For over six minutes before the collision you were on the phone in a video-call. That ended 38 seconds before the collision. It ended 32 seconds before you left the carriageway (off the A1 onto the slip road). It is plain to me that you had insufficient awareness of what was going on around you on the A1."
Ms Tanveer's father, mother and sister each delivered victim impact statements detailing their anguish following her death. Her mother, Nahail Idris, an NHS worker who was in a nearby shop when the crash occurred, held aloft a photograph of her "always smiling" daughter and spoke directly towards the dock. She told the court: "My daughter was killed in front of my eyes. Having subsequently seen the video footage I realise how close Phippen came to killing two of my children. I now exist with a constant scream within me. I will live with this trauma and the loss of my daughter for the rest of my life. My life will now always be about what Urwah never got to do."
Turning to face Phippen in the dock, she declared: "This is my life sentence and my family's life sentence."
