The mother of a teenager killed when a teenager carried out a ‘suicidal’ overtaking manoeuvre on the moors above Holmfirth has described the devastating loss to his family.
Fiona McNamara, a serving police officer in the Greater Manchester force said the death of 17-year-old Sami Achour followed only days after the sudden death of her brother Steve, 55 from a heart attack.
He died when Harriett Haigh’s “thoughtless actions” on September 27 last year on the A635 Greenfield Road near Holmfirth left three other people were seriously injured in addition to the death of 17-year-old Sami who was a back seat passenger in her car.
The Rochdale 18-year-old was sentenced to 30 months in a young offender institution at Leeds Crown Court last Friday after admitted causing the death of Mr Achour by dangerous driving and three charges of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
Fiona said: “I could not have been more devastated.”
She said she felt angry because the way he died was “avoidable” and that no parent should have to plan the funeral for their child.
She said Sami’s friends had provided her with a memory box but the family were left with an “empty void”.
“He was my rock,” she said.
Sami, from Diggle, planned to go university and have a career in IT. He loved music, was passionate about cycling and loved fishing.
The court heard one of those seriously injured in the collision, Adam Barnes – another rear seat passenger in Haigh’s car – had spent months in hospital with severe abdominal injuries including losing sections of his small bowel. He had to be fed intravenously and had only begun to eat food by mouth again in the last two weeks.
His mother Jacqueline Barnes described in a statement to the court that doctors feared on several occasions he would die and was on a breathing ventilator for his first three weeks in hospital when “all our families lives were put on hold.”
He had no memory of the accident which had changed his life forever, turning him from a trainee driller who actively played football, cycled and swam to someone who currently was virtually housebound and facing a continuing risk of bowel obstruction.
Marlon Miller, a firefighter injured on his way to work when Haigh’s overtaking manoeuvre placed her straight in front of his oncoming car also spent days in hospital afterwards with injuries to his abdomen and knees.
He had been due to represent Britain in an over 35 rugby tournament in Dubai but a year later is still facing a further eight hour operation and does not know about his future at work.
He still suffers flashbacks and sleepless nights.
“The events of 27 September changed my life beyond all recognition I went from a confident sportingly fit man responding to threats to life and property of others to an invalid dependent on others,” he said.
Sentencing Haigh, Judge Mushtaq Khokhar said the victims of her driving had not only suffered physical but psychological injuries.
