Mum jailed for dangerous driving that left man needing leg amputation - The Leamington Observer

Mum jailed for dangerous driving that left man needing leg amputation

Leamington Editorial 8th Aug, 2016 Updated: 28th Oct, 2016   0

A VAN driver is to have his leg amputated because he can no longer stand the pain he suffers after it was shattered following a head-on crash near Wellesbourne.

And at Warwick Crown Court the Coventry mother-of-three who caused the devastating crash by dangerously overtaking an articulated lorry on a blind bend was jailed.

Jiao Liu pleaded guilty to causing serious injury to van driver Danny Edmonds and his passenger Mohammed Anwar by dangerous driving on the A429 between Ettington and Wellesbourne.

The 39-year-old, of Moat Avenue, who had two of her young children in the back of her car, was jailed for 12 months and banned from driving for two-and-a-half years.




Prosecutor Amy Jackson said at about 8.20pm on a summer evening in 2014, Mr Edmonds was driving his Renault Kangoo van on the A429 on his way to collect some money he was owed for a job.

Liu was driving in the opposite direction in her Citroen Picasso when she came up behind an HGV – which she began to overtake on the approach to a long, sweeping curve.


The HGV driver indicated right to deter her, and the drivers behind her, realising the risk, did not close the gap to allow her to pull back in, but she continued to try to overtake.

But she did not pass quickly and remained alongside the artic.

Mr Edmonds came round the bend on the correct side of the road, and could do nothing to avoid a head on collision.

The two men were rushed to hospital, and it was found Mr Edmonds had significant ‘limb-threatening’ injuries to his leg.

Recently-married, Mr Edmonds was in hospital for six weeks, and devastatingly, has now been given the option of having his leg fused, so he would be unable to bend it and would be left in constant pain, or to have an amputation above the knee.

Miss Jackson said: “He has chosen the latter route because of his constant pain, and will face months, if not years, of rehabilitation.”

Mr Anwar – who was thrown through the windscreen – suffered deep cuts to his head and face, which has left him with permanent scarring, and he also suffers constant back pain and gets flash-backs to the crash.

When interviewed Liu said it had been safe to overtake, but it ‘seemed to take forever,’ and when she saw the van, she braked, but nothing happened – but Miss Jackson pointed out an examination showed nothing wrong with the Citroen’s brakes.

Tim Pole, defending, said it had not been a deliberate prolonged course of dangerous driving, and added Liu lived with her two youngest children, aged nine and six, while her husband had a property in Sutton Coldfield, where their oldest child attended school.

Jailing Liu, Judge Eyre told her: “This is a sad case. You are a married lady and the mother of three children, and you and in work and have led a respectable life.

“But on that day you caused serious injuries to two young men by your dangerous driving.

“Your selfish lack of consideration for the risk to others has had serious consequences.

“Danny Edmonds was 27 at the time, married with a young child, and everything going for him. His life and that of his family have been seriously affected by your actions.

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