A TEENAGE motorcyclist and his pillion passenger were lucky not to be killed when the stolen Kawasaki motorbike they were riding crashed into a car on a busy Bradford road.

Jayden Peel, who was just 16 at the time, was sentenced by a judge today after he admitted charges of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and aggravated vehicle taking following the crash near Beckfoot Thornton School on Thornton Road.

Bradford Crown Court was told that the Kawasaki ER machine had been stolen from a property in Wakefield in June last year.

The next day Peel and his male passenger were riding it during the afternoon and neither of them were wearing helmets.

Prosecutor Gabrielle Coates said Peel had undertaken a Mercedes van and a speed camera had recorded the Kawasaki travelling at 72.3mph on the 30mph road.

She said a Hyundai ix35 had been performing a U-turn on the road and because Peel was driving too fast he was unable to react.

“There was a high-speed collision and the defendant and his passenger were thrown from the motorcycle,” said Miss Coates.

The court heard that the passenger hit the windscreen of a parked car before landing on the grassed area outside the school.

Peel, of Crediton Avenue, Allerton, Bradford, and his passenger both suffered serious injuries in the collision and were taken to the Leeds General Infirmary.

The Kawasaki machine, worth £4,500, was written off and the driver of Hyundai said he had suffered nightmares and flashbacks of the incident.

The pillion passenger suffered injuries including fractures to his left thigh and hip, an injury to his liver and a fractured rib.

Peel suffered a broken femur and kneecap and had to have a metal bar put in his thigh.

His barrister Verity Barnes said Peel, now 18, was adamant he would not commit any offences again.

“This could have resulted in the loss of his own life and his passenger’s life. He very much understands that,” said Miss Barnes.

The court heard that Peel had kept out of trouble during the 17 months since the incident and was now doing plastering work.

Miss Barnes submitted that a suspended sentence would send the message that this was his final chance.

Judge Kirstie Watson said she had to take account of the fact that Peel was only 16 at the time.

“It is quite frankly, given the speed you were driving and the absence of helmets, a miracle that neither of you were killed,” she told Peel.

“That’s the reality of what your driving could have caused.

“You were not thinking about the dangers or the risk. You were just doing what you wanted to do because you felt that was how you could behave.”

The judge decided that a 12-month sentence of detention in a young offenders institution could be suspended for 18 months.

But Peel will have to do 200 hours unpaid work for the community and comply with 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days.

He was also banned from driving for two years and ordered to take an extended re-test at the end of the disqualification.

Judge Watson said she was reserving any breaches of the order to herself and she warned Peel that if he came back before her she would lock him up.