Man who killed a woman in 'horrifying' crash in Birmingham jailed

A 19-year-old driver has been jailed after killing a woman in a head-on collision in Birmingham.

Shangeeth Sathyanathan, who is now 20, from Stourbridge, has been jailed for nine years.

He was driving at 75 miles per hour, in a 30mph zone, on the wrong side of the road when he crashed into a Nissan Qashqai in August last year.

Sathyanathan, of Brettell Lane, Brierley Hill, had overtaken two other vehicles before ploughing into the car, which was travelling on the correct side of the road.

The woman riding in the Nissan died at the scene, and the driver was seriously injured. Sathyanathan and his passenger suffered minor injuries.

Sathyanathan admitted to causing death by dangerous driving, causing serious injury by dangerous driving and driving without insurance.

Along with his jail sentence, he has been banned from driving for 12 and a half years.

Detective Sergeant 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.

"We can only hope that the guilty plea and the jail term can in some way bring some comfort to those who lost so much in this collision."

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