Drink driver who killed Peterborough man and left woman fighting for life jailed
A drink driver from Whittlesey who killed a Peterborough man and left a woman fighting for her life has been locked up for eight years.
Muhammad Faizan (23) and Sharon Enoch (46) were driving along the A605 near Coates on December 21 last year when they were struck by the Vauxhall driven by Owen Bird.]
Mr Faizan was killed at the scene, while Miss Enoch was left with serious injuries including a fractured spine that left her in hospital for a month.
On Friday (November 21) Bird (46) of Headland Way, Whittlesey, was jailed for eight years after he pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving while over the prescribed limit and causing serious injury by careless driving while over the prescribed limit.
Marti Blair, Prosecuting, told the court Mr Faizan and Miss Enoch were driving to March, where they worked as bouncers, at about 8.30pm when the crash happened.
Bird was driving home in the opposite direction from his job at Tesco.
Miss Blair said: “A witness saw the car driven by Mr Faizan travelling at a speed of about 45-50mph. The witness saw the defendant swerve from his lane. Mr Faizan moved to avoid the crash, but the defendant then swerved back, causing a head on crash.”
The court was told data from Bird’s car revealed he had been travelling at 65 mph on the 60mph road when the collision happened. The data showed he had been accelerating until half a second before the impact.
Two empty cans of strong lager – Stella Artois and Kronenbourg – were found in Bird’s possessions after the crash.
He gave a breath test at the scene of the crash, reading 52ugs of alcohol in 100ml of breath – the limit is 35 ugs.
However, this could not be used as an evidential reading, and four hours after the crash he gave a blood reading of 60ugs in 100ml of blood – the limit being 80.
A back calculation was worked out to reveal the likely blood alcohol level at the time of the crash, which was said to be 133ugs – with a range of between 91 and 171.
Miss Blair read heartbreaking victim impact statements from Miss Enoch and Mr Faizan.
Miss Enoch said she had been forced to give up her job, and was still struggling mentally and physically as a result of her injuries.
Mr Faizan’s family said they were still heartbroken by what had happened – with more than 1,000 people turning up to his funeral.
The court was also told that Bird had been convicted of drink driving in 2022, when he was fined and banned from the roads for 17 months.
Defending, Philip Farr told the court that Bird said he would not drive again following the crash, and accepted anything he said would not correct the ‘irreparable damage’ he had caused.
Mr Farr described the incident as an ‘error of judgement’ lasting a matter of seconds at most.
Along with the eight year jail sentence, Judge Sean Enright banned Bird from driving until November 21 2034 – and said that he will have to take an extended retest if he wants to get behind the wheel again.