A DRIVER who caused the death of his best friend in a crash has been jailed for 18 months.

Rizwan Safdar, 23, of Lynton Avenue, Springwood, was also banned from driving for five years at Bradford Crown Court yesterday.

He had admitted causing the death of his passenger, 22-year-old Huddersfield University student Antoni Owczarek, by dangerous driving.

Safdar was jailed after the court heard how a letter asking for leniency had been sent to the judge by Mr Owczarek's parents, Kazik and Halina.

Safdar will have to take an extended test before driving again.

The court heard how Safdar twice overtook vehicles at speed, before losing control of his Audi car and crashing head-on with a Toyota in Meltham Road, Lockwood, in May last year.

Mr Owczarek, of Lockwood, who had become engaged to girlfriend Alison Timlin only a few weeks earlier, died at the scene. He'd been due to fly to Canada later that day.

The Toyota driver, Roy Dolan, was seriously injured and had a stroke while in intensive care in hospital.

Judge Terence Walsh told Safdar he was a "thoroughly decent young man" who had expressed "genuine heartbreak and remorse".

He was normally a competent and safe driver, the judge added, but that day he had driven at excessive speed and in a way described by one witness as "more than dangerous".

Judge Walsh said he had been moved by the `noble letter' from Mr Owczarek's parents, in which they said that any prison term imposed on Safdar would prolong their agony.

"This court would not wish to add to their grief one jot," he said, but added that his duty still required a custodial sentence.

"It is a tragedy for all concerned," the judge added.

Simon Philips, for Safdar, said an expert had calculated that the Audi was travelling at about 56mph on a 30mph stretch of road when his client started to lose control.

There was a loose manhole cover and a depressed gulley that might have made all the difference between him maintaining control and losing it.

But it was accepted that Safdar was driving too fast and there was no excuse or reason for that as he was not in a hurry.

"I would ask the court to regard this as an isolated lapse," said Mr Philips.

"He bears a sense of shame, but also responsibility, and is prepared to take the consequences."

Safdar was looked up to by others in the community, and the anguish shared by both families would continue for some time.