Maniac motorist jailed for two years

A maniac motorist who led police on a terror ride through Black Country streets after a failed suicide bid has been jailed for two years.

Drink and drug-crazed Kieron Smith overtook on a blind bend and hurtled along on the wrong side of the road at twice the speed limit, forcing other drivers to brake and swerve. The 29-year-old, of Bilston, hurled a shotgun and cartridges out of the Vauxhall Vectra while careering over speed bumps in Walsall so fast that he lost pursuing police.

He finally crashed the car into the wall of a mosque.

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard yesterday how Smith, of Great Bridge Road, was hurled into the back seat of the vehicle by the impact and did not fully regain consciousness for two days.

The pursuit had started after a police patrol car saw him erratically reversing at high speed while being chased by three police officers on foot following an incident in Beechdale Road, Walsall, said prosecutor Stephen Thomas.

It sped down the wrong side of Kent Road, Bentley, at 60mph before overtaking on a blind bend. It crashed into a wall in Attlee Road, Bentley, before continuing into Edinburgh Avenue where other cars were forced to slow and swerve to miss it.

The Vectra then swung into Churchill Road on the wrong side of the street, turned into Wolverhampton Road West and sped along Wolverhampton Road towards Willenhall before the driver finally lost control and hit the wall of a Sikh temple.

Tests showed Smith was almost double the drink-drive limit and also had traces of cocaine, heroin and other drugs in his system.

Christopher O’Gorman, defending, sad: “He still remembers little or nothing of what happened. He had not been allowed access to his children over Christmas following the break-up of his marriage and his finances were in a mess.”

Smith admitted dangerous driving and illegal possession of a shotgun on December 28 last year. Judge Michael Dudley told him: “It is pure chance that it was only a wall that you collided with in the end.”