Two men have been sentenced following their involvement in a fatal road traffic collision on Kingsway, Manchester, in March this year which resulted in the death of Sylvester Abayomi.
Uways Hussain aged 20 of Marley Road, Manchester, has been sentenced to 11 years and eight months.
Usmon Mahmood aged 23 of Buller Road, Manchester, has been sentenced to 12 years and nine months.
Police believe this is one of the first times nationally where a passenger has been convicted for aid and abetting causing death by dangerous driving.
The sentences follow a night of dangerous driving, during which the pair filmed themselves consistently travelling at speeds of over 100mph on 30mph roads. In several cases the pair reached over 130mph and seconds before impact, were recorded at 139mph.
Prior to the collision, beginning at around 11pm, Hussain and Mahmood were driving recklessly around the South Manchester area.
The vehicle belonged to Mahmood, but he allowed Hussain to drive the vehicle at high-speed throughout the night.
Mobile phone footage recovered from the offenders showed them repeatedly reaching speeds of 130mph, running red lights and weaving through traffic with no regard for the safety of other road users or pedestrians.
At one stage during the night, the pair stopped at a petrol station, where footage shows Mahmood inhaling from a balloon while seated in the passenger seat.
Further footage recovered can see the Mahmood in the passenger seat inhaling from a balloon while Hussain is doing over 100mph, who also appears to be inhaling from a balloon.
The fatal collision occurred at approximately 4:36am at the junction of Green End Road and Kingsway. Sylvester was on his way to work and entered the junction on a green light, believing it was safe to proceed.
He was then struck by a Volkswagen Golf driven by Hussain, which had travelled through a red light, at extremely high speed.
Emergency services attended the scene, but despite their best efforts, Sylvester sustained fatal injuries.
Paying tribute, Sylvester’s partner, Denise, said: “On Monday 9 March, the love of my life was taken away, he was the most caring soul and gentle person you could ever meet. He had time for everybody and was loved by everyone. Syll will be sadly missed.”
Immediately following the collision, Greater Manchester Police received several emergency calls, including an automatic alert from an Apple Watch worn by Hussain as it recognised he had been involved in a collision.
During this alert, both men could be heard discussing plans to flee the scene and attempting to decide what evidence they needed to remove from the vehicle.
They were also heard discussing reporting the vehicle as stolen. Shortly afterwards, they booked an Uber to escape from the scene.
We received our first report at 4:37am and within 12 minutes the pair had been located, caught and arrested by officers.
Vehicle data recovered from the Golf showed that in the seconds leading up to the collision, the car reached a maximum speed of 139mph.
