COVENTRY MESSAGE BOARD

Jiao Liu performed a blind overtaking manouvre when she got stuck behind her lorry - even though she had her kids in the back of her car



A mum who tried to overtake a lorry on a blind bend with her children in the back of a car crashed into a van - leaving the driver so badly injured he will have to have his leg amputated.

Danny Edmonds and passenger Mohammed Anwar were in their van driving to collect money for a job they had recently done when they collided with a Citreon Picasso being driven by Coventry mum Jiao Liu.

Liu, of Moat Avenue, Green Lane, Coventry , had tried to overtake a lorry on a blind bend - even though her two young children were in the back of the car.

At about 8.20pm on August 11, 2014, Mr Edmonds was driving his Renault Kangoo van on the A429 between Ettington and Wellesbourne.

Liu was driving in the opposite direction with two of her children in the back of her Citroen Picasso when she came up behind an HGV – which she began to overtake on the approach to a long, sweeping curve.

The HGV driver indicated right to deter her, and the drivers behind her, realising the risk, did not close the gap to allow her to pull back in, but she continued to try to overtake.

At Warwick Crown Court Liu, aged 39, pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

She was jailed for 12 months and banned from driving for two-and-a-half years.

Dangerous driving Coventry mum has jail sentence halved on appeal

A mum-of-three from Coventry whose "thoughtless driving" left a young dad needing a leg amputation has had her jail term halved by senior judges.

The judge who jailed her described her crime as a "thoughtless act involving a lack of consideration for other road users".

She had shown a ‘selfish lack of consideration for the risk to others’ and ‘blighted the lives of two young men’.

But Tim Pole, for Liu, today argued her jail term was far too harsh and should have been suspended.

“This was a difficult sentencing exercise,” said the barrister.

“The judge had on the one hand a lady of 39 years of age, of positive previous good character, without any history of poor driving and an offence which was really borne out of inexperience set against the fact that Mr Edmonds suffered a life-changing injury".

It was "a tragic error borne out of inexperience" and "the mistake here was not accelerating quickly enough", he argued.

Mrs Justice Laing said the crown court judge had "carefully considered" whether the sentence should be suspended and taken her children into account.

“We don’t consider the judge erred in principle in not suspending this sentence,” said the judge, who was sitting with Mrs Justice Thirlwall.

He was "entitled to take into account the devastating impact of the offence on the two victims", she added.

But Mrs Justice Laing went on to rule: “It seems to us that the sentence passed by the judge was manifestly excessive.”

The court cut Liu’s jail term from 12 months to six months. Her two-and-a-half year driving ban was also reduced to two years.