Death crash driver given three years

A Shropshire driver has been jailed for three years after a motorcyclist was killed in a 60mph head-on collision.

Keith Michael Jeffrey-Shaw attempted to overtake two cars at high speed on the B5062 at Uffington before ploughing head-on into a motorbike ridden by 34-year-old Adrian Jones, from Newport.

Shrewsbury Crown Court yesterday heard the crash happened near the crossroads for Haughton and Withington just before 9.30pm on August 22 last year.

Mr Jones, who worked at Precision Colour Printing (PCP) in Halesfield, Telford, as a bindery manager in the finishing department, suffered a fractured skull and other broken bones and died as a result of his injuries.

Jeffrey-Shaw, 46, of Whi- tehart, Shrewsbury, who admitted causing death by dangerous driving at a hearing in April, was also disqualified from driving for five years.

Mr Matthew Brook, prosecuting, said: "Nichola Lewis became aware of a car's lights approaching her from behind, by the time she had a second look the car had overtaken her.

"It was being driven very quickly. That car was an Audi driven by this defendant. As the car came alongside Mrs Lewis saw a motorbike with its lights on travelling towards her.

"She braked because she could see the defendant had nowhere to go and came to a stop just after the crossroads. The defendant was in the wrong lane and hit the motorcycle head on. He continued on and hit the door of a second car, almost forcing it into a ditch. He then hit a verge, went airborne and ended up in a field."

Mr Martin Butterworth, for Jeffrey-Shaw, said: "Wh- at made this a dangerous manoeuvre was the fact the defendant failed to see Mr Jones. Without that failure it wouldn't have been dangerous.

"He failed to take pr- oper and safe care when he made his overtaking man- oeuvre. He is remorseful."

Sentencing, Judge Peter Joyce QC, said: "He made a terrible mistake which ruin- ed one family and as a result will destroy his own.

"His failure to see was brought about by the fact he was going too quickly and he decided to go for it and overtake."