Speeding driver jailed for fatal head-on crash

A speeding driver who hit a car head-on, killing one person and seriously injuring another, has been jailed for nine years.

Shangeeth Sathyanathan, 20, was driving an Audi A5 on the wrong side of Great Hampton Street, Hockley, in Birmingham, when the fatal crash happened in August last year.

He was driving at 75mph in a 30 zone when he overtook two cars before hitting a Nissan Qashqai, West Midlands Police said.

Sathyanathan admitted causing death by dangerous driving, causing serious injury by dangerous driving and driving without insurance, and was jailed at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday.

The force said the driver of the Nissan suffered serious spinal injuries while a female passenger was killed in the crash.

Sathyanathan, of Brettell Lane, Brierley Hill, was also disqualified from driving for 12 years and six months at the hearing on Friday.

Det Sgt Richard Evans, from the serious collision investigation unit, said: "This was a deliberate decision by Sathyanathan to carry out a highly dangerous manoeuvre, at a speed very significantly in excess of the speed limit.

"The judge described the collision as horrifying and that it was purely good fortune that the driver of the Qashqai did survive."

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