JAILED: Bilston horror crash driver missed pedestrian by inches after police chase
A bullying boyfriend whose bid to escape police came within inches of disaster was starting a two-year jail sentence today.
Horrified Rebecca Weston was walking down the pavement in Church Road, Bilston, during her lunch hour while having a phone conversation with her mother when she saw the Peugeot hurtling towards her on its side, a judge heard.
The nimble bank worker leapt out of the way in the nick of time as the vehicle swept past, uprooting a lamp post and ploughing into the front of the Past, Present and Future appliance shop, causing £1,000 damage.
Miss Weston later told police: “If I had not run out of the way I would have been struck by him. I was very lucky.”
The car came to a standstill with its wheels facing the front of the store.
Pursuit
Police, who had just abandoned the pursuit because it was getting too dangerous, went to the aid of driver, Aniel Landa, who kneed one of the officers in the face, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.
Mr Timothy Sapwell, prosecuting, explained: “They saw smoke coming from the car, smashed a window in the vehicle and pulled the defendant out but whilst being restrained he assaulted an officer.”
Landa, aged 22, had broken the terms of a restraining order banning contact with his former partner hours after being freed from jail where he had been serving a sentence for biting and attempting to strangle her.
The 22-year-old immediately defied the order and soon returned to his demanding, coercive behaviour, the court heard.
She went to spend the night at the home of a relative in Wednesfield but Landa was on the door step the next morning, December 4. He tricked her into getting into his car by offering her a lift home to get a change of clothes but headed for an industrial estate in Hickman Avenue, Moseley, where he stopped and pulled her hair to stop her fleeing.
Shielded
But she finally broke free and ran to East Park where she was shielded by two council workers, forcing the defendant to circle the park waiting for her to leave. He was spotted by police called to the scene, triggering the pursuit.
Landa broke the speed limit, went through two sets of red lights, and drove both the wrong way round a traffic island and on the opposite side of the road, forcing other motorists to brake and take evasive action, continued Mr Sapwell.
Mr Scott Coughtrie, defending, conceded: “It is more by luck than judgment that he is not facing far more serious offences.
“This has had a profound effect on him and he has now come to terms with the fact the relationship is over.”
Landa, of Constantine Way, Bilston, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, assaulting a Pc and breaching a restraining order.
He was sent to prison by Recorder Leo Pyle who told him: “If Miss Weston had not been paying attention while walking along the pavement on the phone she could, and would, inevitably have been seriously injured.”
