Faces of dangerous drivers who crashed at traffic lights - killing passenger - are revealed
These are the first pictures of two dangerous drivers, one in a stolen car, who who collided at a traffic light junction in a crash that killed a 21-year-old man.
James Sheridan was a back seat passenger in a blue Ford Fiesta when it collided with a grey VW Golf in Norton Road shortly before midnight on 23 June, 2021. He died at the scene and four others were injured
Ethan Holness and Frederick Rogers were jailed for a total of 17 and a half years at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Friday.
Both drivers were way over the 30mph speed limit at the time of the crash at the junction with Norton Road, just before midnight.
Investigators established the Fiesta, driven by Holness, had been travelling at up to 72mph as it approached the lights at the junction with Lichfield Road and Wolverhampton Road. The car had been stolen two days earlier in the Telford area and was travelling on cloned plates.
It went through those lights as they turned amber but travelling in the opposite direction was the Golf, being driven by Rogers at around 60mph.
It also went through the junction despite the lights being on red. The cars then collided.
Rogers failed a roadside breath test and a further blood sample showed he had 111 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood – the legal limit is 80.
He and Holness were sentenced for death by dangerous driving on Friday.
Rogers, aged 34, of of Hospital Lane in Cheslyn Hay, was sentenced to 10 years and disqualified from driving for six years and seven months. He will also have to pass an extended test once the disqualification has ended.
Holness, aged 21,of Dickinson Avenue in Wolverhampton, was sentenced to seven years and six months and disqualified from driving for five years. He will have to pass a extended test once the disqualification has ended. He was also given a concurrent sentence for stealing the Ford Fiesta in Telford.
The mother of Mr Sheridan wrote a letter to sentencing judge Justice Michael Chambers, making a plea for leniency, saying Holness and her son "were childhood friends" and that "young men make mistakes".
Detective Sergeant Julie Lyman, from the West Midlands Police Serious Collision Investigation Unit, said: "This was a complex investigation and through forensic work we have pieced together what happened that evening. Our thoughts remain with the family and friends of James.”
