Two men who killed a taxi driver and his passenger when they crashed while racing cars at speeds approaching twice the limit have each been jailed for seven and a half years.

Private hire driver Mirza Malick, 64, was taking his passenger Paul Hayward, 55, to church when the horror crash happened on the Shipley Airedale Road, in north Bradford, in January.

Bradford Crown Court heard how Mr Malick's Proton taxi was sent rolling down the 40mph limit road by the force of the impact from a BMW driven by Muhammed Sikder.

Moments before, cameras had caught the BMW travelling at up to 75mph as it raced with a Range Rover, driven by Ismail Miah, which was travelling at up to 85mph.

The BMW and Range Rover also collided with each other after the impact with the Proton, a judge heard.

Family statements read in court expressed the horror of what the two men in the taxi must have experienced as the Proton "rolled over and over until it stopped".

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall sentenced the pair to seven and a half years in prison and banned them from driving for nine years.

He accepted that some people would see the sentences as too lenient but he explained that, despite the case being "approaching the worst" of its kind, he had to give credit to the two men for their guilty pleas.

Judge Durham Hall said his sentence "will no doubt be questioned" and added: "No doubt my superiors, as we speak, are examining this offence and the sentencing policy."

He told the court the two defendants were "side-by-side, challenging each other" seconds before the "catastrophic" crash.

The judge said the defendants - "two young men, otherwise entirely decent but, on the day, entirely absorbed and entirely selfish" - were "driving high powered cars in a race on a major arterial route, with a 40mph limit, which you knew well, on a Saturday morning, at about 10 o'clock, at speeds which defy belief".

He said: "You gave no thought save to the challenge by one, whoever it was, taken up by the other."

The judge said: "It was inevitable that death would be the result."

In victim impact statements, the court heard that Mr Malick's widow has "lost half her soul" due to her husband's death.

Mr Haywood was a schizophrenic who lived at a nursing home. He was travelling to a Bradford city centre church at the time of the impact.

Miah, 23, of Springfield Place and Sikder, 27, of Sylhet Close, pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving at Bradford Crown Court in August.

Sergeant Carl Quinn, who led the investigation, said: "Their driving on that fateful day was foolish, reckless and highly dangerous and sadly resulted in the untimely deaths of two men.

"Their families are understandably distraught by what has happened."

In a statement issued through West Yorkshire Police, the families of the two men who died said: "We welcome today's sentence and hope that it sends a strong message to others about the consequences of dangerous and reckless driving.

"We would like to thank all the emergency services who have been involved in the investigation and the support we have had throughout this difficult time."