The drivers who killed people on the roads through bravado, recklessness, drugs, mistakes or deliberate acts

Published date04 June 2021
Publication titleWalesOnline (Wales)
There are a large number of people who lose their lives on Welsh roads every year but sometimes those deaths are caused by drivers whose dangerous behaviour behind the wheel has directly led to people dying.

Here is a roundup of defendants who have been jailed at Welsh courts for causing death by dangerous or careless driving.

Sakhawat and Shabaz Ali

Sakhawat Ali was twice the drink-drive limit and had taken cocaine and smoked cannabis before he crashed his uncle’s car killing passenger and aspiring beautician Xana Doyle, 19.

The 29-year-old admitted "showing off" while behind the wheel, was distracted moments before the 60mph crash after his drugged-up cousin Shabaz Ali, 27, attempted to pull the handbrake from the rear passenger seat as a joke.

The stolen Toyota Avensis then hit the kerb before going 10ft in the air as if it had “hit a stunt ramp” before flipping on its roof.

Ms Doyle was killed instantly but the cousins told “lie after lie” to police arriving at the scene – even claiming they were walking down the street when the crash happened early on the morning of January 9, 2015, in Usk Way, Newport.

Sakhawat Ali was sentenced to eight years and three months imprisonment and Shabaz Ali was sentenced to seven years and three months imprisonment, at Cardiff Crown Court in July 2015.

Michael Wheeler and Melissa Pesticcio

Michael Wheeler and his former partner Melissa Pesticcio gave a joint pursuit of Sophie Taylor in an attempt to ram it off the road.

Ms Taylor, 22, was killed after Wheeler's Vauxhall Corsa collided with her black BMW One Series, causing it to spin into a building.

The court heard the fatal collision occurred at 12.35am on August 22, 2016, at the junction between Meteor Street and Moira Street in Cardiff.

The victim suffered a traumatic brain injury while Joshua Deguara suffered serious injuries.

Wheeler was sentenced to six-and-a-half years imprisonment and Pesticcio was sentenced to six-and-a-half years imprisonment, at Cardiff Crown Court in May 2017.

Cerys Price

Nurse Cerys Price was high on painkillers when she killed Robert Dean, 65, in a collision in Newport.

She had taken unprescribed Tramadol when she got behind the wheel of her father's Isuzu D-Max and collided with Mr Dean's Vauxhall Astra on the A467 dual carriageway between the Rogerstone Intersection and the Bassaleg roundabout on July 15 2016

Mr Dean was pronounced dead at the scene and the defendant's then boyfriend Jack Tinklin suffered spinal and abdominal injuries...

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