An Uber Eats driver who struck and killed a young woman while 'drifting and skidding' his car around a ring road has been jailed. Saleh Mahmoud Taha Hassan, 20, lost control of his Toyota Corolla and ploughed into Natasha Thorp and Cerys Cartwright in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, on August 22 last year.
University student Natasha Thorp, 21, was on a night out with her best friend when she was hit. She was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency services. Cerys Cartwright, 21, who was walking arm in arm with Natasha when the car swerved onto the pavement, suffered serious injuries, including a broken foot.
Jailed at Birmingham Crown Court
On Friday, Hassan, from Sutton Coldfield, was jailed for nine years and four months at Birmingham Crown Court and banned from driving for 12 years and eight months. He had previously pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving, causing serious injury by dangerous driving and causing death by driving while uninsured.
Hassan had only passed his test less than two months earlier and was not insured to drive that night, despite having made UberEats deliveries earlier that evening. The court heard he had been driving his Toyota Corolla with his friend between Birmingham and Tamworth on the day of the incident, had helped his mother with a flat tyre and attended a mosque.
'Showing off' caught on CCTV
CCTV captured him 'drifting and skidding' around the A5127, as well as going around a roundabout multiple times. This saw him lose control of the car, only to regain it, after which he asked his friend in the passenger seat to film him drifting the car. As he left the roundabout he had circled multiple times, he lost control again, veering towards the pavement and into Ms Thorp and Ms Cartwright.
The crash in Sutton Coldfield town centre unfolded at 11.53pm, and Hassan had been clocked doing 46mph on the 30mph road beforehand. An examination of the Toyota also revealed a defect in the brakes which would have been obvious to him while driving around, the court heard.
Family's tribute to 'one in a million'
Prosecutor Nicholas Berry, recounting Ms Cartwright's memory of events, said: "Both she and Ms Thorp were in good spirits and walking along Brassington Avenue linking arms as they typically do. Ms Thorp was walking closest to the kerb and road. Ms Cartwright on the inside."
Ms Thorp's cause of death was recorded as a traumatic head injury caused by unsurvivable blunt force trauma. Ms Cartwright, speaking from the witness box at the sentencing hearing, told Hassan 'you are to blame', as he listened via a video link from a booth at HMP Brinsford in Staffordshire. She said she had been enjoying the 'perfect' night out with Ms Thorp, her best friend of 10 years who she described as 'full of life' and a 'ray of sunshine'.
In a statement read to the court, Natasha's family said: "Tash was our daughter, a sister, a girlfriend, a granddaughter, a niece, and a friend to so many. No words will ever be able to express just how much we miss our dear Tash."
Ben Williams, defending, said Hassan's 'idiotically reckless behaviour' was 'utterly out of keeping with his ordinarily positively good character'. He told the court Hassan had achieved excellent A-Level grades and had planned to go university himself, as well as set up his own business. The barrister added he had written a letter to the victims' families acknowledging the 'devastating consequences' of his own actions.
Judge Kershaw described CCTV footage of the collision as 'horrific'. Passing sentence, he said: "It was an irresponsible, reckless and deliberate piece of driving that took away the life of Natasha Thorp and seriously hurt Cerys."
