A couple ran from the scene of a horror smash after a 12-year-old girl was killed and lied about who was responsible.
Hannah Jones lost control of Safeer Iqbal's Vauxhall Corsa and crashed into a Nissan Qashqai on the M61 near Chorley in July 2019, LancsLive reports. Schoolgirl Sana Patel, who was riding in the Qashqai with her family, was pronounced dead at the scene after being thrown from the car.
Jones and Iqbal ran away from the crash and called for a taxi to take them back to West Yorkshire. For months, the pair tried to say Iqbal was the driver rather than Jones before finally admitting they had caused her death.
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Sana, from Blackburn, was not wearing a seatbelt at the time she was thrown from the vehicle. She was described by her family as being friendly and cheerful and having a 'zest for life'.
Preston Crown Court heard how Iqbal and Jones had been at a party earlier in the night in July 2019. Despite not being insured, Jones decided to drive as Iqbal had been drinking.
Inside the car, he made a FaceTime call to a friend who could see that he was in the passenger seat and that he was carrying a bottle of vodka in one hand and the phone in the other. According to the friend, Iqbal, 31, had made the call with the pretence of checking on his welfare but he believed he was actually doing it to show off that he was 'out with a woman'.
At the time, Iqbal was also in an on-off relationship with the mother of his children and had told her he was driving a friend to Birmingham that night. Witnesses on the motorway reported seeing the car being driven erratically, both at high and low speeds.
One motorist, Jane Monaghan, said she passed the car when it was being driven at around 65mph in the middle lane with no other vehicles on the inside lane. Soon after, as she neared Rivington Services, it went past her at a speed estimated to be around 95mph.
She caught up with the car again as it passed a lorry before suddenly and inexplicably applying the brakes. Another driver reported seeing the Vauxhall being driven at 90mph in the middle lane.
Mr Patel, Sana's father, told police he was driving at around 68mph to 70mph and only saw the Vauxhall for the first time in the moments it came careering towards his car. Prosecuting, Mark Kellett, explained that Jones had lost control while steering, with the car quickly moving from the outside lane to crash into the Patel family's Qashqai on the inside lane.
That sent the car spinning, causing it to overturn and tragically leading to Sana's death. Crash investigators said the damage caused to the vehicles indicated that Jones was driving at around 90mph at the point of impact.
Mr Patel recalled the panic of the aftermath as he couldn't see his daughter in the car anymore. The 12-year-old had been thrown out of the vehicle.
In a victim statement read to court by Mr Kellet, Sana's mum described her as a friendly and cheerful girl who was always smiling and had a zest for life. She said the 'unimaginably violent' way their daughter was taken from them has left the family suffering from sleepless nights, nightmares, and flashbacks, while it feels like the 'light in their lives' has been taken away.
Mrs Patel said Safa loved art and dreamed of working as a fashion director or another creative job. "We are still dealing with losing not just our dearest daughter, but the life she would have had, the life and future she would have had enjoyed," she said.
At 11.07pm, the same minute that Sana was pronounced dead, Iqbal was calling a Chorley taxi firm for a ride. Once inside the cab, he was told it would cost £170 to get back to Yorkshire and instead asked to go to the Premier Inn on Moss Lane where the pair spent the night before checking out early in the morning.
Days later, Jones was arrested at her home and Iqbal handed himself into a police station but both insisted that he was driving. Mr Kellet said that the positioning of Jones' injuries clearly indicated that she had been wearing the seatbelt on the driver's side but when asked about this, she told officers: "I don't know, I've got loads. It could have been from last week."
Months later, Iqbal admitted he was not the driver in a second police interview. Jones maintained it was not her but eventually changed her plea when a trial was due to begin.
That day, the CPS indicated it would accept a charge of causing death by careless driving rather than the more serious 'by dangerous driving'. Jones admitted that offence as well as changing her plea on a charge of perverting the course of justice.
Iqbal had already admitted that offence at his first hearing. The court heard that Iqbal has previous convictions for driving offences and a public order offence as well as for an offence of controlling and coercive behaviour in relation to Jones.
This related to a period after the fatal crash. Jones has one previous conviction for driving while double the alcohol limit and without insurance - that offence took place in March 2021.
The pair returned to court to be sentenced yesterday (March 15). Defending Jones, Richard English said she was an inexperienced driver at the time of the offence and had matured a lot since causing the child's death aged 23.
He said she wanted to receive her punishment. Jones, who cried as details of the case and the victim impact statement were read out, is now in a stable relationship and employment and had made arrangements for her son to be looked after during the imprisonment which she accepted was inevitable.
Defending Iqbal, Luis Canosa said his client had panicked after the collision but regretted running away and was remorseful that lying about who the driver was had delayed the family getting justice. He said the reason he had initially taken the blame was that he feared the impact on Jones' son would be greater if she was punished as she is a single mother.
He was supported in court by the mother of his own children and they remain in a relationship. Sentencing, Judge Simon Medland KC said that no sentence could ever take away from the Patel family's grief and that he was bound by the sentencing guidelines.
He also heavily criticised the 18 month delay in charging Jones and Iqbal as 'unjustified' and 'inexcusable' and said that would be factored into the sentence.
Jones, of Stocks Bank Road in Mirfield, Yorkshire, was jailed for 18 months and banned from driving for two years. Iqbal, of Lees Holm in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, was jailed for eight months and banned from driving for 12 months.
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