'Appalling' hit-and-run driver jailed for 13 years over baby's death

A driver who knocked down a pregnant student, killing her baby boy, has been jailed for 13 years.

Renju Joseph, 31, was struck by a speeding car driven by 20-year-old Ashir Shahid at a zebra crossing in the village of Bamber Bridge, near Preston, Lancashire. The Toyota Prius driven by Shahid was thought to be going at speeds between 58mph and 71mph in a 30mph zone, in dark and wet conditions, Preston Crown Court heard.

Mrs Joseph, who was five months pregnant at the time, was taken to hospital from the scene in Station Road in the early evening of 29 September 2024. Doctors carried out an emergency C-section to try to save the life of her son, Olive.

The woman was walking slightly behind two female colleagues on the crossing around 7.50pm as they made their way to a night shift at a nearby care home. A motorist driving in the opposite direction reported that the Prius appeared to accelerate about 15 metres before reaching the crossing, then swerved to avoid the two pedestrians ahead.

The pregnant woman was hit and "thrown into the air for quite some distance" before she tumbled and rolled into his car, according to the witness. Prosecutors said Shahid's driving before the collision also "left a lot to be desired".

Footage recovered from the mobile phones of Shahid and his 17-year-old younger brother, Sam Shahid, who was in the front passenger seat, showed the pair laughing and singing along to music while the car was being driven recklessly and at high speed. Sam Shahid was also seen sticking his feet and upper body out of the window while the driver occasionally took both hands off the wheel and made gun gestures.

Minutes after the collision, the Toyota was abandoned in a side street and covered with a sheet by the defendants. Others then moved the vehicle onto the back of a flatbed truck and dumped it in Farnworth, Greater Manchester.

Ashir Shahid was arrested days later and made no comment when interviewed, but when his phone was examined, it revealed that on the night of the collision, he made an online search for "charge for hit and run human". Ashir Shahid, of Walton le Dale, Preston, pleaded guilty in June to causing death and serious injury by dangerous driving.

On Friday, he was also banned from driving for 15 years and one month, and must pass an extended retest. Sam Shahid, also of Walton le Dale, Preston, was detained for three years after he pleaded guilty to assisting an offender.

During sentencing, Judge Ian Unsworth KC remarked that Ashir Shahid's acceleration just before the crash was "similar to what you might witness on a Formula 1 racetrack". He said: "Your driving was nothing less than appalling.

You engaged in a prolonged and persistent course of dangerous driving. "Your speed was significantly in excess of the speed limit and was highly inappropriate for the prevailing road conditions.

"Olive's life lasted five hours and 38 minutes. He did not live to see dawn.

His mother never saw him alive. His life was snubbed out before it really began." Mrs Joseph spent a fortnight in a coma before she learned of the death of her son, the court heard.

She and her nurse husband, Nyjil Jonn, both originally from India, had planned a gender reveal party at a baby shower for family and friends on 2 October. One of her last memories before the collision was buying a dress to wear for the occasion, she said in a victim personal statement read out to the court.

Mrs Joseph said: "Everything has been ruined by that one night and the callous and reckless actions of those two people in that car. My life will never by the same again.".