'˜It's lucky nobody died' - Peterborough woman loses licence for dangerous driving which caused four car parkway crash

On August 24, 2016 Saeeda Parveen (37) of Bright Street in Peterborough was driving her black Volkswagen Polo at about 12.40pm on the Nene Parkway when she was involved in a four-vehicle collision.

Parveen was approaching the junction for Malborne Way, heading towards the A47, when she drove straight into the back of a red Toyota Starlet which was stationary in a queue of traffic.

The force of the collision then sent the Polo into the back of a grey BMW 318 and the side of a white Ford Fiesta.

All three emergency services were called out and attended to a number of casualties. The driver of the Starlet, a woman in her 30s, was seriously injured and trapped in her car. Fire crews had to remove the roof in order to get her out so medics could attend to her.

She was taken to hospital and treated for serious but not life-threatening injuries to her neck which have taken her about 18 months to recover from. Other casualties suffered minor injuries.

A number of witnesses told police how they had seen the Polo travelling at speed in the outside lane when it approached the traffic and swerved across into lane one, crushing the back of the Starlet.

Following a police investigation, in December 2016 Parveen was summoned to court charged with driving a motor vehicle dangerously.

Parveen denied any wrongdoing, but following a one-week trial at Peterborough Crown Court earlier this month she was found guilty of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

Today (Friday, May 25) she appeared at the same court and was sentenced to nine months in prison suspended for 18 months, disqualified from driving for two years with a retest at the end and 120 hours of unpaid work.

PC James Roper said: “In a number of years working the frontline for the emergency services I have never seen damage to the extent caused by Parveen. She struck stationary traffic with enough force to send her vehicle ricocheting into a number of other vehicles, striking one of the cars involved twice on opposite sides.

“Her actions caused one of the city’s major parkways to be closed for a prolonged period on one of the hottest days of the year, causing untold disruption for hundreds of motorists. I feel it was purely luck that kept this incident to a serious injury, as opposed to the fatality it could easily have been.

“My thoughts have been with the main victim throughout this process and I was happy to see that after 18 months her condition has made a huge improvement.”