A speeding delivery driver lost control of his car and crashed into a tree when he was on an errand to get cigarettes for his friends at the end of their shift at a takeaway, an inquest has heard.
Rabnawaz Sultan’s crashed car was discovered in Queen’s Road, Bradford, by his work colleagues at the nearby Flames takeaway, who had gone to look for him when he failed to return.
The 26-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene, despite efforts by emergency services to save him, after the accident at about 12.30am on September 7 last year.
Collision investigator Keith Raynor told the inquest in Bradford yesterday how marks on the road and damage to Mr Sultan’s Volkswagen Passat indicated he had been travelling in excess of the 30mph limit when he lost control on a right-hand bend and had overcorrected sending the car into a spin.
It hit the tree sideways on, trapping him in the wreckage.
Post mortem tests later showed Mr Sultan, of Toller Lane, who had no traces of alcohol or drugs in his body, had suffered multiple injuries which were unsurvivable.
He had been helping out with deliveries that night while the usual driver from the takeaway in Bolton Road was on holiday in Pakistan, the inquest was told.
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A police report stated Mr Sultan’s skills as a driver that night had been “lacking” but his family at the inquest, including two of his brothers who had gone to the accident scene soon after, struggled to accept police findings.
His father Mohammed Sultan told the inquest he felt guilty because as a parent he should have died before his son who had been a role model for his other siblings and was a religious man knowing his responsibilities in life.
Recording a verdict of accidental death, Assistant Bradford Coroner Tim Ratcliffe said: “He was travelling at such a speed and such were his driving skills that the vehicle was difficult and impossible to control.”
