140mph death crash driver jailed

Taiwanese national Tien Cheng, 28, crashed his Mercedes CLS 320 while speeding along a dual carriageway in North Yorkshire in extremely poor weather conditions in the dark with fog and heavy rain hampering his vision.

One witness who saw the car before the crash claimed the Mercedes was being driven at the fastest speed he had ever seen on a British road and was travelling along "like a rocket".

Rear passengers Jingning Wang, 20, a York University student, and Quan Qin, 21, died after they climbed out of the wreckage of the Mercedes and were struck in a freak accident in the right-hand lane of the A64 near Tadcaster by a Mazda driven by Kevin McGregor, 40.

Mr McGregor, from York, was cleared of two counts of causing death by careless driving. But recycling firm boss Cheng wept as he was convicted of two charges of causing death by dangerous driving and jailed for six years.

Cheng, from Bristol, did not have a valid UK licence at the time of the crash in the early hours of November 29 last year.

Jailing him at York Crown Court, Judge Stephen Ashurst said: "Your distress and your loss of liberty will be temporary. For your victims and their families, their loss is permanent."

The judge told Cheng, who came to England to study in 2003, that the women had died as a result of the "grossly excessive speeds" at which he was driving. Judge Ashurst added: "One witness described you as travelling like a rocket. Another said you were driving the fastest he had ever seen a car travelling on a British road.

"A man travelling back to York at 100mph described you as overtaking him and disappearing within seconds. Therefore it seems to me it would be appropriate to say you were travelling at a speed between 120mph and 140mph."

During a week-long trial, barrister Timothy Capstick, prosecuting, had told the court that Cheng had driven to Leeds for a night out with his girlfriend Jenny Wang, 26, and the two female friends.

But Cheng ignored his girlfriend's desperate pleas for him to slow down as he drove along the A64.

Mr Capstick said: "He left Leeds at around 2am and began driving his party back to York. It was raining heavily and visibility was poor, but witnesses describe seeing Mr Cheng drive at grossly excessive speed for the conditions.

"You may think it not surprising that at that speed, he lost control and hit the central reservation. The car then spun round so it was straddling both lanes of the carriageway.

"Following the collision, with airbags deployed and white smoke coming from the air conditioning unit, all four occupants managed to exit the vehicle.

"Each of the deceased were standing near the front of the Mercedes in the carriageway, and they were then struck by Mr McGregor."

Mr Capstick added that Cheng insisted that he was the victim and had done nothing wrong when he spoke to a probation officer months after the crash.

Judge Ashurst described Cheng as "arrogant" and also banned him from driving for 10 years.

David Dixon, defending, said Cheng had been suffering from nightmares since the crash, and added: "The consequence still live with him to a large degree."

Mr McGregor, of York, was cleared of both charges.

During the trial, he had spoken of his "total shock" when his car hit the two women and how he struggled to carry on with normal life afterwards. Neither driver was over the legal alcohol limit at the time of the crash.