Reckless driver jailed for killing Sikh woman in UK
Darpan News Desk IANS, 12 Jan, 2023 10:51 AM
London, Jan 12 (IANS) A 23-year-old man in the UK has been jailed for six years for recklessly driving at a speed of nearly 100 mph, which led to the death of a Sikh woman -- mother to a five-month-old.
Hashim Aziz was driving at over three times the speed limit to "impress his cousins" when his Audi A3 crashed into Baljinder Kaur Moore's Vauxhall Corsa in West Midlands, in November last year, the Mirror reported.
Baljinder, 32, was on her way to pick up her husband from his brother's home, and she was driving at 62 mph.
The Wolverhampton Crown Court heard that two witnesses had spotted Aziz flying past them "in excess of 100mph" before they heard "loud bangs".
The severity of the impact caused one of the car engines "to become detached" while debris was left scattered 30 metres away, prosecutor Cathlyn Orchard said.
Baljinder was announced dead on the spot by paramedics.
According to the Mirror, Aziz, a resident of Highgate Drive, Walsall, initially tried to blame the victim for the tragedy during a police interview but later admitted causing death by dangerous driving.
"He accepts full responsibility for what was a catastrophic accident. He simply shouldn't have been travelling anywhere near that speed," Aziz's defence counsel, Adam Morgan, said.
During his sentencing at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Tuesday, Aziz expressed "full remorse" for the crash.
The court was told that Aziz had a clean criminal record and no driving convictions.
In addition to a six year jail-term, Aziz has been banned from driving for seven years.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian also rejected accusations that China had not fully cooperated with investigators, saying it welcomed a science-based probe but rejected any political manipulation.
In a report released Thursday, WHO’s expert group said “key pieces of data” to explain how the pandemic began were still missing. The scientists said the group would “remain open to any and all scientific evidence that becomes available in the future to allow for comprehensive testing of all reasonable hypotheses.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced his investigation of Twitter on Monday just hours after Musk, the billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO, accused Twitter of refusing to disclose the extent of its spam bot and fake accounts.
The confidence vote follows "anger" over senior civil servant Sue Gray's report detailing lockdown "rule-breaking" in Downing Street. As Johnson survived the confidence vote, he will now stay in his job as Prime Minister.
On Sunday, the World Health Organization said more than two dozen countries that haven’t previously identified monkeypox cases reported 780 cases, a more than 200% jump in cases since late May. No monkeypox deaths outside of Africa have yet been identified.
The WHO European office is concerned that the recent lifting of pandemic restrictions on international travel and events could act as a catalyst for rapid transmission, Xinhua news agency reported.
