VIDEO: Driver caught on camera using road as race track before killing woman in 70mph crash

James Mills was doing 70mph as he used the busy dual carriageway near Merry Hill 'as a race track'.

Mills, aged 23, had been on the busy Pedmore Road, near Merry Hill, moving from side to side as if to force over the car he had been trying to race and undertaking other vehicles.

One motorist described his black Ford Focus, which had been modified to make it more powerful, as hurtling past him 'like a rocket'.

Victim Vijaya Mistry, a 74-year-old grandmother, who had been sitting next to her husband in their Mondeo on February 3 as he waited to turn right into The Gateway, was thrown through the passenger window by the impact. She died of her injuries later in hospital.

Mills, from School Road in Brierley Hill, appeared at Wolverhampton Crown Court, on Friday where he was jailed for five years and four months for causing death by dangerous driving.

He was also banned from driving for almost a decade and will have to pass an extended re-test in order to ever get his licence back.

Mark Crozier from West Midlands Police’s Collision Investigation Unit, said: “Mills was a young man driving an extremely powerful sports car…and when at the controls of such cars there comes with it a huge onus of responsibility.

“This is a terribly sad case that shows the dangers of driving recklessly – even just for a matter of seconds – it can have catastrophic and life changing consequences.

“Mills was essentially using a public road as a race track, showed a total disregard for other road users and gave no thought for the devastation he could cause.

“I know the prison sentence imposed on him will never fill the void left within the victim’s family and I extend my condolences to them.

“I’m sure there are many more young men driving similarly powerful cars across the West Midlands. This case should act as a stark reminder of the dangers of driving dangerously – it can kill and ruin lives, including their own.”