A PRIVATE hire driver who left a pedestrian with “catastrophic” injuries when he hit her while trying to run a traffic light has been jailed.

Tariq Karamat, 46, was driving a Toyota Hiace minivan when he struck Sophie Rajput, 32, at the junction of Hall Ings and Bridge Street in Bradford city centre shortly after 5pm on March 14.

Prosecutor George Hazell-Owram told Bradford Crown Court yesterday that West Yorkshire Police collision investigators had found Karamat had been travelling somewhere between 37mph and 44mph when he drove through the traffic light, which was on amber and about to turn to red.

He hit Miss Rajput halfway across the second lane of the carriageway and knocked her “30 metres” in the air.

Witnesses reported seeing her thrown down the road like “a rag doll”.

Mr Hazell-Owram said the accident had been caused by three factors; the speed of Karamat’s vehicle, the fact he had failed to brake or deviate prior to the impact, and Miss Rajput’s decision to cross the road when the red warning light on the crossing was on.

She suffered a heart attack at the scene but was revived before being taken to hospital by air ambulance. She broke both her legs, her pelvis, a number of ribs, and suffered lacerations to her spleen and liver.

She also suffered a second heart attack in hospital and injuries to her brain. It was almost a month later, on April 11, before she was able to breathe for herself again.

Referencing a medical report from the end of November, Mr Hazell-Owram said Miss Rajput was suffering from cognitive difficulties that posed “significant problems to day-to-day living” and was likely to have long-term ongoing impairments.

Judge Colin Burn said he had read “very hard-hitting” victim impact statements from Miss Rajput’s sister and partner referencing the complete change in her character.

In two police interviews, Karamat, of Nottingham Street, Thornbury, Bradford, said he had been travelling at 25mph to 30mph at the time of the crash.

Mitigating, Ray Singh said father-of-two Karamat had stayed at the scene and had tried to help Miss Rajput, and felt genuine remorse for her injuries.

Of the crash, Mr Singh said: “He says he simply didn’t see her,” pointing to the fact that while Karamat had been trying to “jump an amber light”, Miss Rajput had ignored a red warning sign.

Sentencing Karamat, who admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving, Judge Burn said: “The CCTV footage shows you may have just made the white line of the junction at the point at which the light turned red, almost as though your minivan triggered the light.

“You were crossing that junction at the lowest estimate of 39 miles per hour, and you hit Miss Rajput at a lowest impact of 37.

“There was nothing to suggest you shouldn’t have been able to see her. She was almost as heedless of you as you were of her.

“You sped up to beat the lights, and you were driving at excessive speed. That in itself is dangerous driving.

“There was no attempt by you to stop.

“The injuries caused were horrendous. It was a disastrous decision that has irrevocably changed your life and caused life-changing injuries.

“The Sophie Rajput who crossed the road has gone, she will never be the same.”

Karamat was sentenced to 12 months in prison and banned from driving for three years. He will have to complete an extended re-test before he can legally drive again.

After the case, Bradford South MP Judith Cummins said: “The courts, and ultimately the jury, must be left to decide the fate of those charged with dangerous driving. This is a cornerstone of the British justice system.

“But in Parliament this week, I pressed the Justice Minister to take dangerous driving seriously, by acknowledging that it blights too many communities right across the UK, including Bradford.

“The Government must look at strengthening sentences for wrongdoers, to send a strong message that dangerous driving is not acceptable on our roads.”

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