A taxi driver who left a Black Country teenager with a fractured spine, broken ribs and a punctured lung and stomach in a horror head-on crash has been spared an immediate prison sentence.

Jodie Miller, aged 19, had to undergo numerous emergency operations following the crash caused by Mohammed Saleem. The smash happened in Huddersfield in July, when the former Queen Mary’s Grammar School pupil was attending a wedding with her boyfriend James Westcott.

Saleem, aged 26, was overtaking on the wrong side of the road when his taxi collided with the one Jodie was travelling in.
Saleem, of the Marsh area of Huddersfield, was given a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, at Bradford Crown Court this week. He was banned from driving for five years.

Miss Miller, who lives in Shelfield, Walsall, and is now studying for a physics master’s degree at Birmingham University, said she was “extremely relieved” at the sentencing.

To read our stories in full, log in to the premium 24 website.