By: Chandrashekar Bhat
A law student from Bradford whose dangerous driving while using Snapchat caused the death of a biker has been jailed for three and a half years.
Daniaal Iqbal, 23, who was also working as an Amazon delivery driver when the fatal accident took place in September 2019 is banned from driving for 45 months.
He was driving a Ford Transit van round a bend when he collided with Peter Rushforth from Ripon who was riding his Suzuki motorbike.
Rushforth, 56, died instantly.
Iqbal was arrested and the data extracted from his phone showed he had sent messages to his girlfriend and another person on Snapchat while the van was moving. He had sent a message 20 seconds before the crash took place on Kirkby Road in Ripon.
York Crown Court heard that Amazon had not provided Iqbal with a cradle for the phone to use the device hands-free, as he was also using a navigation app to find a petrol station when the accident occurred.
Major Collision Investigation Team’s detective sergeant Kirsten Aldridge said Iqbal denied any responsibility for the crash but there was “unquestionable evidence” to challenge his claims.
“This is yet another fatal collision caused by a driver who refused to listen to the warnings about the risk of using a mobile while driving and chose to blatantly disregard the law”, he said.
Rushforth paid the price for Iqbal’s poor decision-making, the detective sergeant said.
Iqbal’s counsel told the court that his client, who completed a foundation degree in law at Bradford College after the collision, was pursuing a full law degree. He said the student with no previous convictions expressed his ‘remorse and devastation’.
Judge Simon Hickey told Iqbal: “You were driving dangerously and you were not concentrating for 32 seconds. You must have been distracted by that app, and you killed an innocent man. I accept that you come from an impeccable family background and are an otherwise decent young man.”
