Driver 'was racing at 100mph' before fatal crash

Rebecca McManus, aged 21, died when the red Mitsubishi careered into her as she waited at a bus shelter on her way to a friend's hen night, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

Another pedestrian, 21-year-old Harriet Barnsley, was also struck on Hagley Road West, Bearwood, on May 31 last year.

BMW driver Inderjit Singh, 31, saw the smash but failed to stop and was arrested two weeks later, the court was told.

Yesterday Mr Hugh O'Brien-Quinn told the court Singh was as culpable as the Evo driver because the pair had been racing.

"The defendant and another man had decided to use the road as their own private race track on which to show off how fast they could drive in their powerful cars," he said. They raced each other over a significant distance overtaking and undertaking at speeds of up to 100mph along the A4123 Birmingham New Road often travelling inches apart from each other.

"The black M3 was dictating the pace and by the time they had reached Hagley Road West he pulled further ahead."

As Singh slowed down because of stationary traffic the red Evo saw an opportunity to undertake him and get ahead by driving into a bus lane at 101mph, he said, adding: "The defendant saw the crash but unlike other motorists he drove away and was only traced and arrested by police two weeks later."

A jury heard how police found a mobile phone at his Cranbourne Avenue home in Ettingshall, Wolverhampton, and recovered several text messages dated the day after the smash. One reply to a message asking if he got home OK read: "LOL I'm still like freaked by the crash. I checked the news and I just hope no-one got hurt."

Singh has admitted dangerous driving and accepts he was racing but denies death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving. The trial continues.

Mitsubishi Evolution driver Sukvinder Mannan, 33, of Roundhills Road, Halesowen, pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.