Hit-and-run driver who killed pregnant woman’s baby jailed

A driver who struck a pregnant student and killed her newborn baby has been sentenced to 13 years in jail.

Renju Joseph, 31, was five months pregnant when she was hit by a car driven at high speed by Ashir Shahid, 20, as she crossed a zebra crossing on Station Road in Bamber Bridge, Lancashire.

Shahid, of Windsor Road in Walton-le-Dale, admitted causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

His brother Sam Shahid was also was sentenced to three years behind bars at Preston Crown Court after he pleaded guilty to assisting an offender.

The Toyota Prius, driven by Shahid, was estimated to be travelling at between 58mph and 71mph (114kmh) in a 30mph zone in dark, wet conditions, the court heard.

Mrs Joseph was taken to hospital from the scene in the early evening of September 29 last year, and an emergency C-section was carried out in an attempt to save the life of her son, Olive.

She had been walking slightly behind two female colleagues on the crossing at about 19.50pm as they headed to work a night shift at a local care home

A motorist travelling in the opposite direction said the Prius driver seemed to increase speed about 15 metres (49ft) away from the crossing.

The pregnant woman was hit and “thrown into the air for quite some distance” before she tumbled and rolled into his car, the witness said.

Video clips recovered from Shahid’s mobile phone and that of his front seat passenger, his 17-year-old brother, showed them laughing and singing to music as the car was driven erratically and at speed.

Sam Shahid was also seen to put his feet and upper body out of the window while the driver removes both hands from the wheel at times and makes gun gestures.

Minutes afterwards, the Toyota was abandoned in a side street and covered with a sheet by the pair, before others moved the vehicle on to the back of flatbed truck and dumped it in Farnworth, Greater Manchester.

Ashir Shahid was arrested days later and made no comment when interviewed. When his phone was examined it revealed that on the night it happened he made an online search for “charge for hit and run human”.

A video clip on his Snapchat account also showed him singing along to the Shaggy song It Wasn’t Me and laughing.

Voice recordings were also discovered of Sam Shahid rapping about the incident, including the lyrics: “She still not woke up, she still asleep.”

Ashir Shahid, of Windsor Road, Walton le Dale, pleaded guilty in June to causing death and serious injury by dangerous driving.

On Friday, he was also banned from driving for 15 years and one month, and must pass an extended retest.

Sentencing them, Judge Ian Unsworth KC said Ashir Shahid’s acceleration in the moments before the crash was “akin to what you may see on a Formula 1 race track”.

He said: “Olive’s life lasted five hours and 38 minutes. He did not live to see dawn. His mother never saw him alive.

“His life was snubbed out before it really began.”