Video shows 100mph race moments before dad kills son in crash
Three-year-old Say Han Ali suffered catastrophic head injuries and later died.
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A father who raced another driver on a motorway and crashed his car, resulting in the death of his three-year-old son, has been jailed for four and a half years.
Israr Muhammed, 41, was racing Adam Molloy, 29, on the M62 when his Honda Civic sped off down an embankment and hit a tree.
Hull Crown Court heard Muhammed’s son, Say Han Ali, suffered catastrophic head injuries after the car spun across all three lanes of the motorway, while Say’s seven-year-old daughter suffered serious and life-changing facial injuries.
His wife Safeena Ali suffered multiple head and internal injuries and was in a coma for more than four weeks.
The couple’s eight-year-old son, who was also in the vehicle at the time, was also injured.
Following the sentencing, Humberside Police released footage of the two cars racing before the deadly crash on 1 July 2018.
It shows the two cars travelling more than 100mph in very close proximity. Moments later, the force said one car suffered a “catastrophic blow out inducing oversteer and causing the car to leave the carriageway.”
Both Muhammad and Molloy were arrested by police. Muhammad, from Batley, was charged with causing death by dangerous driving, two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and causing death whilst uninsured.
Molloy, from Normanton, failed to stop at the scene and was later traced and charged with causing death by dangerous driving and two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
After a nine-day trial, the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict against both men on all counts. They were sentenced on Tuesday to four-and-a-half years in prison and have been disqualified from driving for six years and three months.
Judge David Tremberg said the immediate cause of the accident was a “latent defect” to one of the tyres on Muhammed’s car, causing a “catastrophic failure” that was increased by the high speeds.
During sentencing, he said: “Other drivers formed the impression that you were racing and driving like idiots.
“I’m satisfied that you, Israr Muhammed, had a whole array of safe choices you could have made to avoid rising to the bait.
“Nobody forced you to exceed the speed limit, nobody could have done, nobody forced you to stay pig-headedly in the outside lane of the motorway because the middle lane was clear for a long stretch.
"Your offending inevitably has caused not just physical harm but emotional harm. Your children have witnessed the loss of their brother. Your wife the loss of a child.”
Addressing Molloy, he added: “You, Adam Molloy, elected not to give evidence at the trial. That’s not surprising because no-one was forcing you to drive as you did and you could not have had an answer to why you were driving in such an aggressive and intimidating fashion at such a high speed and so close to the car ahead.”
In a victim impact statement, Mrs Ali urged the judge not to jail her husband.
Andrew Semple, in mitigation for Muhammed, said he had an “unimpeachable” driving record and described him as a “loving family man, a hard worker”.