Horror crash at speed killed mother-of-two Zoe Sarjeant

Mum-of-two Zoe Louise Sarjeant, 27, of Daisy Fields, in Thornton, fractured her neck in the high speed crash and died at the scene.

• FROM THE ARCHIVE: Tributes to Zoe Sarjeant

She did not have a driving licence, was not wearing a seatbelt and was over the drink-drive limit when she took off in an Audi A4 after spending the night and early hours of the morning drinking at her home with friends.

The inquest heard from several witnesses who described Sarjeant as driving “too fast” and “dangerously” as she came along Swain House Road at 6.10am on Saturday, September 1, last year.

A bus driver and taxi driver saw her mount the pavement and swerve into oncoming traffic before pulling back onto the right side of the road, mounting the kerb again and hitting a tree.

The bus driver estimated Sarjeant was travelling between 60 or 70mph and was "flying".

She added: "The car was travelling extremely fast.

"I would describe it as flying and would estimate the speed was 60 to 70mph."

A police collision investigator estimated her speed was around 67mph and the crash was "inevitable" when Sarjeant first started losing control of the car.

He said an experienced driver would have struggled to avoid hitting the tree once the car’s back end began to rotate.

The inquest heard the mum had spent the day with her ex-partner’s sister, Cherelle Hands, and her brother, Rizwan Hands, before Mr Hands and his girlfriend, Karla Adair, returned to the home she lived in with her two young children.

Miss Sarjeant left the couple, and her two young children, and drove off in the car before returning two hours later.

When Mr Hands and Miss Adair decided to leave in the early hours of the morning, Miss Sarjeant offered them a lift home, but Mr Hands declined and she phoned them a taxi instead.

As they were getting into the taxi, Mr Hands said Miss Sarjeant got into the Audi's driving seat and sped off.

A statement read out at the inquest on behalf of Miss Adair described how she had seen Miss Sarjeant‘s mood change and she became upset before driving away.

The taxi driver who was driving Mr Hands and Miss Adair followed the Audi out of the estate and was then instructed by Mr Hands to keep following the car.

The driver said he pulled up alongside the Audi at traffic lights and Mr Hands was sworn at by Miss Sarjeant before she sped off again.

They lost sight of her as she turned onto Kings Road and the next time they saw the car it had crashed into the tree.

Mr Hands and Miss Adair, along with several witnesses and onlookers, pulled her body out of the wreckage and a police officer arrived to give the mum CPR, but she could not be saved.

Stephanie Curtis, Miss Sarjeant’s mum, described how her daughter had a turbulent childhood, but her life had settled down when she met the father of her children.

However, she was no longer with him and was having issues with her next door neighbour and was being treated for a heart condition, Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome, which she was diagnosed with in 2014.

She also had a history of anxiety and depression.

Her mother said: “I would describe Zoe’s personality as funny and making jokes.

“She was a great mum to her two children.

“She made people laugh all the time and was a bubbly girl when she wanted to be, but when she had her down days because of her depression, she said she hated the world and didn’t want to speak to anybody.

“I’m devastated by her death and life will never be the same without her.”

Angela Brocklehurst, assistant coroner for West Yorkshire, concluded Miss Sarjeant had died as a result of a road traffic collision.

She added: "Zoe drove another person's car while not holding a legal qualification to drive and her journey was not protected by a seatbelt.

"She was doing twice the legal speed limit and was not able to control it despite good driving conditions.

"It's my judgement that all of these factors contributed to the inevitable fatal accident that Zoe became involved in."