A driver who has never passed a test raced through residential streets at speeds touching 70mph before jumping a red light and crashing into a Land Rover, a court has heard. The innocent motorist that Redd Hanford smashed into suffered whiplash injuries and bruising while the defendant was left badly injured with a broken leg and hips, and a punctured lung.
At the time of the collision Hanford was a banned driver having previously been disqualified for driving a van while more than six times over the cannabis-driving limit. Sending the 29-year-old to prison, a judge told him he had been driving like a "maniac", and said the public was fed up with people abusing roads and putting others at risk.
Megan Jones, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court that the crash happened on December 11 last year following a police chase through the streets of Port Talbot. She said a police officer carrying out static observations near the Sunnycroft roundabout in Baglan saw a VW Golf driving towards the town centre "at speed" and began following it before signalling for it to pull over. In response to the blue lights and sirens Hanford "accelerated hard", and drove off. A chase ensued, with Hanford hitting speeds of 70mph as he raced through the residential streets of Baglan and Taibach, overtaking vehicles at speed, and going the wrong way along a one-way street. The pursuit came to an end on the A48 when the defendant sped through a red traffic light and crashed into a Land Rover using the junction. Miss Jones said officers gave 29-year-old Hanford medical assistance at the scene before he was taken to hospital, while a search of the Golf - which was described by an officer as being "a wreck" - uncovered a cannabis plant in a black bin liner.
