Kieran Connor, 22, risked the lives of several members of the public after he travelled at 125mph with his lights off on the A19. He has been jailed for 22 months following the police chase
Shocking footage has captured the moment a dangerous driver attempted to evade police on a major UK road as cops pushed 150mph to catch him.
Kieran Connor, 22, was involved in an intense police pursuit, with cops being forced to travel at speeds of 146mph on the A19. Connor switched his lights off at 125mph during the chase and smashed through cones on a closed section of road.
At one point, he drove at speeds of 80mph in a residential 20mph zone. He then crashed into another car and tried to flee the scene at around 9.45pm on September 4 this year. A member of the public said they thought they were “going to die” after the driver crashed into them.
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Police had spotted Connor driving a Ford S-max south of the Tyne Tunnel on the A19. He was a wanted man, having previously failed to stop for officers in Wallsend. He failed to stop again when they activated their blue lights and sirens and sped up to 110mph before turning his lights off. He turned onto the A183, went through a red light and narrowly avoided a collision with a member of the public.
When he reached speeds of 80mph in a residential 20 zone with his lights still off, police aborted the pursuit on safety grounds. He was later spotted on the A1231 by an officer in an unmarked car, who requested assistance and believed Connor was unaware of his presence at that stage, reports Chronicle Live.
He was then seen to be doing 80mph in a 50 zone, undertaking vehicles for no apparent reason and, back on the A19, he forced his way through the middle of two cars and pushed his way past them in a “deliberate ramming” which forced one of the cars into the central reservation.
With officers now believing he knew they were back on his tail, marked cars took over the pursuit again. David Robinson-Young, prosecuting, said: “He was driving at 125mph with no lights on. He crashed through a coned off roadworks area, damaging cones. It crashed through a closed road section at Easington.
“He was followed along the closed stretch of road to ensure the safety of any road workers present. It went through numerous cones, sending debris into the carriageway.” A police car following behind was left with a shattered windscreen and the driver was unable to continue the pursuit.
He then rammed into the car of a member of the public in what the other driver through was an intentional collision to provide a gap for him to get through. Connor then made off on foot but was found hiding behind a bush in a garden.
The pursuit had lasted more than 30 minutes and a police expert described it as “atrocious driving”. He said after he collided at 112mph, it was a “miracle” no-one was seriously injured or killed. The officer said he was “clearly willing to put lives at risk for his own gain” and the “it was the worst driving I’ve witnessed in my service”.
The member of the public who he crashed into said in a victim impact statement: “I honestly thought I was going to die or end up in a much worse accident. I’ve got a little girl at home and I was worried I would not make it home that night. He nearly killed two people just because he didn’t want to get caught. It’s just unforgiveable. He put my and my passenger’s lives at risk.”
Connor, of Shotton Colliery, Durham, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and driving with no licence or insurance. For that and breaching the earlier sentences, he was jailed for 22 months and banned from driving for three years. Judge Gavin Doig told him: “You drove in an horrendous fashion around the streets of that area. You were driving at extremely high speed, well in excess of 100 miles per hour and you turned your lights off. You placed your own life at risk and you placed the lives of many other road users at risk by driving as you did. This is an extremely serious example of dangerous driving.”
Connor has 12 previous convictions, including for aggravated vehicle taking, dangerous driving and violence, and was on two suspended sentence and a community order at the time. Jordan Parkinson, defending, said: “He accepts his driving was appalling and that he put others’ lives at risk through his own selfish behaviour. He has a significant leaning disability and is susceptible to the influence of others. He has ADHD and autism.”