CAUGHT ON CAMERA: Man jailed for horror crash into taxi on M6 before fleeing scene to hotel
This is the moment a dangerous driver ploughed into a taxi driver on the hard shoulder of the M6, before fleeing the scene and checking into a hotel for the night.
Ben Cooke is seen undertaking cars in his BMW 118 as he made his way at speed up the motorway between junctions 4a and 5.
Seconds before the crash, the victim had pulled onto the hard shoulder and activated his hazard lights.
As he got out of the car, Cooke ploughed into the Ford Focus, leaving the driver helplessly lying in lane one of the busy motorway as cars swerved to avoid him.
Cooke, aged 35, walked away and got into a taxi which had stopped near to the scene of the collision, at around 1.10am on 22 December last year.
An ambulance on its way to another emergency, and which Cooke had overtaken moments earlier, stopped to help the victim.
Cooke was driven to a hotel in Castle Bromwich where he checked in for the night.
He was arrested the next day and made no comment in interview, but went on to admit causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
He was jailed for 18 months at Birmingham Crown Court on Monday (16 November).
He’s also been banned from driving for four years and nine months.
PC Nick James, from the Central Motorway Police Group, said: “This was a horrific piece of driving, in terrible weather conditions on a part of the motorway that he shouldn’t have been on as the matrix boards were displaying 'Hard Shoulder for emergency use only' to show it was closed.
“We don’t know exactly how fast Cooke was going, but he was clearly undertaking vehicles which would have been travelling at around 70mph.
“The taxi driver has no memory of the accident or why he had to stop on the hard shoulder.
“He was left with multiple fractures and some internal bleeding, and while he is recovering, he hasn’t yet been able to return to work.
“This footage shows that this could have been so much worse.”