Driver killed elderly couple

A driver who killed an elderly couple after failing to return to his side of the road after an overtake has been jailed.

Zahid Majid, 37, was driving a BMW M3 on the A1307, a single carriageway road, near Lolworth at just after 3pm on Saturday, 23 July 2022.

He decided to overtake two farming vehicles at 60mph but failed to return to the correct side of the road and in doing so, struck a red Fiat Panda being driven by William Wilson, with his wife Susannah in the passenger seat.

The head-on collision caused the Fiat to overturn onto its roof in the carriageway and the couple, known as Susie and Tony, both aged 80 and of Rose and Crown Road in Swavesey, died at the scene.

Majid, of Wallingford Gardens, High Wycombe, was cut out of his car by firefighters and taken to hospital having suffered two broken thighbones.

In police interview he admitted being the driver of the BMW but claimed he had no memory of the events leading up to, during or after the collision. Other than this, he answered no comment to all questions put to him by officers.

He was later charged with two counts of causing death by dangerous driving but continued to deny the offences.

Majid stood trial for three days at Cambridge Crown Court in August, where jurors took less than three hours to find him guilty of both counts.

He was sentenced at Peterborough Crown Court today (30 October), where he was handed 10 years in prison and disqualified from driving for a total of 12 years.

DC Kim Marshall, of the BCH Serious Collision Investigation Unit (SCIU), said: “This is another heartbreaking case which is almost beyond belief. Mr and Mrs Wilson would still be alive had Majid paid attention to the road; his driving was simply dangerous.

“Mr and Mrs Wilson’s deaths have devastated their family and friends and so easily could have been avoided. There is nothing that highlights the reality of dangerous driving more than cases like these.

“Our thoughts remain with their family, and although it does not make things better, I hope the sentence handed to Majid will provide some form of closure for them.”

In a statement, Mr and Mrs Wilson’s daughter Anna Winspear expressed the family’s sincere gratitude to the force and the wider teams involved in the case.

She added: “We lost so much in one single day; Susie and Tony were parents, grandparents, great grandparents and so much more. They were friends and extended family to so many and loved by all. 

“We will miss them forever, and we hope that lessons can be learnt from incidents such as this one, to prevent more innocent lives from being so unnecessarily lost. We hope that they can now rest peacefully, together.”