Motorist who hit 12-year-old on M62 in West Yorkshire carried on for two miles, court told

A motorist continued driving for two-and-half miles after a fatal collision with a 12-year-old boy on a motorway, a jury has been told.

Callum Rycroft died from his injuries after being hit by a car driven by Shahid Ilyas, 48, as he ran across the M62 in West Yorkshire on 5 August.

Prosecutors told Bradford Crown Court that Mr Ilyas was not criminally responsible for Callum's death.

But they told a jury how Ilyas did not stop as soon as he safely could after the collision, despite “massive damage” to his windscreen which severely impeded his view of the road.

They said he did not report the incident to the police until the next day.

Mr Ilyas denies a charge of dangerous driving.

Michael Smith, prosecuting, told the court on Thursday how Callum died due to the “negligence and poor care” of his father, Matthew, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter and has already been dealt with by the courts.

Mr Smith said: “This case is a tragic one.

“It involved the death of a 12-year-old boy called Callum Rycroft who, because of the negligence and poor care of his father, found himself crossing the M62 on 5 August 2023.”

He said: “But the crown accepts that this defendant is not at fault for that collision because he could not have expected a pedestrian to have been crossing the M62 or reacted to avoid the collision.”

Mr Smith also conceded that the motorway at the point of the collision, near the Hartshead Moor services, Bradford, is “perhaps incorrectly called” a smart motorway, with no hard shoulder.

But the prosecutor said Ilyas failed to stop when the motorway hard shoulder did resume and then passed a layby when he pulled off the M62.

Mr Smith said that, when the defendant eventually pulled into a service station, he called his car hire company to arrange recovery of the vehicle but did not ring the police.

It was his solicitor who called officers the next day, he said.

Mr Smith said to the six men and six women on the jury: “What you’ll have to determine in this case is whether the defendant driving on was dangerous, whether he could have brought the vehicle to a safe stop before he did.”

He said the defendant is likely to argue that he was “simply a man doing his best in difficult circumstances”.

The jurors were shown photographs of the damage to Ilyas’s windscreen and the front end of the car, and Mr Smith said the impact with Callum brought the vehicle to “an effective standstill”.

He said: “You simply cannot drive a car safely in that condition.”

Mr Smith said the defendant’s decision to drive on was “inherently unsafe and dangerous”.

Concluding his opening statement, the prosecutor said: “We accept the defendant did not kill Callum.

“We say he should not have driven on in the manner that he did.”

Ilyas, of Moorfield Chase, Farnworth, Bolton, denies one count of dangerous driving.

The trial continues.

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