A SPEEDING driver who crashed his car into a tree caused “life-changing injuries” to a female passenger – and then fled the scene, a court heard.

Michael Firth was driving a Mercedes CLA220 on Bolton Road in Bradford when he overtook another car and accelerated into a bend on the early morning of June 4, 2023.

Moments later his car careened off the road, demolished a fence, and slammed into a tree.

Prosecutor David Ward told Bradford Crown Court that witnesses heard a male passenger in the front seat shouting “my back!” whilst a female passenger in the back seat was also screaming in pain from a shattered kneecap.

Bradford Crown CourtBradford Crown Court

Firth appeared “slumped” at the wheel before climbing into the back seat as the driver’s door was pinned shut. He later seemed to wander around as if in a daze, and then ran off.

He was arrested almost two months later, on July 31, after handing himself into a police station.

The crash happened in the early hours of the morning 

The court heard that the crash happened at about 5.45am. Firth, now 26, of Irwell Street, Bradford, was giving his friends a lift home after all three had been out socialising in various city centre pubs.

Firth was said not to have been drinking.

On Bolton Road, he overtook another travelling at the 30mph speed limit. Firth’s Mercedes was estimated to have been travelling at 40 to 50mph and “disappeared round a tight bend”.

Mr Ward said: “There was a bang and a puff of smoke. [The other driver] saw that the Mercedes had lost control and had left the road, destroying a fence and going quite a way into the grassed area and destroying a tree in the process. The Mercedes was written off.”

The other driver and a passing special constable, who saw the after-effects of the crash, stopped to help and called the emergency services.

When an ambulance arrived, Firth was seen to get up and run off. He was pursued by the special constable in his car but was not caught.

The injured passengers, both of whom were “quite intoxicated”, were spoken to at the scene. The female said they had been on a pub crawl before getting in the car.

Mr Ward said: “The journey was uneventful until they were approaching this corner [in a built-up area on Bolton Road] at which point she suddenly said, ‘I thought I was going to die’. Her memory then becomes very vague. The crash then happened after the overtake.”

The woman suffered a shattered knee joint on her right leg, which had to be pinned and screwed back together. It also required her to wear a cage on it for between four and six months.

She also suffered a collapsed lung with a 7mm hole and an aneurism on her spleen. She was in a major trauma unit for three days after the crash.

The injuries left her temporarily housebound, meant she could not start a new job, and would have a long-term effect on her ability to carry out day-to-day activities.

The court heard that Firth had a clean record before the incident. He later pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by careless or inconsiderate driving.

'This is something you'll live with for the rest of your life'

Mitigating, Matthew Moore-Taylor said Firth had made “a stupid decision”.

Mr Recorder Anthony Hawks told Firth: “Why you made a decision to overtake in those circumstances is something you’re going to have to live with for the rest of your life.

“You lost control of your car, and you caused life-changing injuries to a close friend of yours.

“It’s important for it to be stressed that we are not dealing here with a case of dangerous driving. If we were you’d be going to prison for about two years.

“Nevertheless, it’s a bad case of its sort.”

He sentenced Firth to eight months imprisonment suspended for 18 months, and ordered him to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work in the community

Firth was also banned from driving for 12 months.