Road-race pair face jail over woman’s death

Sheffield Crown Court heard Adam Cox, 23, and Simon Chevens, 42, who had passed his driving test only a fortnight earlier, raced at speeds of up to 70mph.

Prosecutor Andrew Hatton said the two high-performance cars were travelling at great speed, weaving in and out of traffic and following each other bumper-to- bumper.

Teaching assistant June Bryce-Stephen, 56, was killed when her Nissan Micra was struck by Cox’s silver Honda Civic as she attempted to turn right onto a busy dual carriageway.

Cox went round a corner too fast and his car slammed into her driver’s side and she died at the scene from multiple injuries. Chevens managed to brake and take evasive action before fleeing the accident scene.

The court was told that seconds before the collision on the evening of March 6 last year Cox was racing Chevens’ orange Ford Focus on the A61 road at Wadsley Bridge, Sheffield.

Pizza delivery worker Adrian Nicklin was shocked to be overtaken by the Focus travelling very fast.

He said: “It looked like they were having a race up the hill. The orange car was swerving in and out of the lanes.”

He rounded a corner to come across the crash. He said: “I got to the top of the hill and there was smoke everywhere from the collision.”

Witness Karen Ellis saw both cars speed past as she waited to cross the 40mph limit road. She said: “They were going extremely fast.

“They were going above the speed limit and because of how close they seemed to be together, I thought they were racing.”

She saw the cars disappear around a bend and then heard what she thought was the sound of a vehicle back-firing, only to come across the crash.

Her husband, Darren Ellis, told the court the cars were travelling at between 60mph and 70mph.

Motorist Andrew Carl told how the cars pulled up alongside him at traffic lights and braked hard before setting off “pretty quick”.

Cox, of Stannington, Sheffield admitted causing death by dangerous driving.

Chevens, of Chapeltown, Sheffield was found guilty of the same offence after a trial.

He told the court he had been driving normally along the road and “there was no race”.

Chevens said the younger man had been driving a “bit erratic” before flooring the Civic and then slowing down again.

Chevens flashed his lights to let the other driver know he was “stupid” but claimed he did not retaliate by racing him.

He said he was ashamed at fleeing the accident scene.

He said: “I was shocked. I braked to stop for a couple of seconds. I’m ashamed to say I did a left turn and drove off. I’m ashamed at myself for not having stopped.”

Chevens was remanded in custody by Judge Michael Murphy and will appear alongside Cox for sentencing today.