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NRI driver lands in jail for killing UK medico
Jaswinder Singh admitted causing the death of 20-year-old Abigail Craen by dangerous driving on October 30 last.
An NRI driver, who sped off after knocking down a medical student on a pedestrian crossing in the central English city of Birmingham, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.
45-year-old Jaswinder Lakhwinder Singh, an uninsured driver, admitted causing the death of 20-year-old Abigail Craen by dangerous driving on October 30 last.
In his ruling on Monday, Judge Pearce-Higgins QC at Birmingham Crown Court said the incident had caused great sadness for all concerned, but added that Singh had shown remorse and guilt, and was not a callous man.
He said if the defendant had been driving at the appropriate speed, the incident would not have happened. "You are clearly a man of good character with only one previous incident of driving with excessive alcohol and I've taken into account that you surrendered and made full submittance of guilt," he told Singh.
Singh wept as the sentence was read out. He admitted failing to report the accident and driving without insurance.
Singh, who hit Craen so hard that he knocked her about 30 metres, gave himself up to police when Craen's mother allowed newspapers to publish photographs of her daughter in hospital.
During a court hearing in January, Singh wept as he said he had panicked after hitting the student because he was uninsured and had not been wearing the spectacles he needed.
Singh, a father of two, had only been driving for a month following a 12-month ban for drinking driving. He will not be allowed to drive now until 2010.
