A MOTORIST has been jailed after leading police on a 102mph chase which began through a Carlisle housing estate as children played close by.
Provisional licence holder Daniel Short took his mother’s Mercedes car without her consent to visit shops but then “panicked” when he saw a marked patrol car at around 2-50pm on August 2 in the city’s Harraby area.
Short, 24, failed to stop despite blue lights being illuminated by an officer who reached almost 60mph in a 20mph zone on Lightfoot Drive in his bid to keep pace. Dashcam footage from a five-minute pursuit captured that officer also hitting 102mph on London Road just to keep up with Short, who made daring overtakes and then continued at speed on a country road to the village of Cumwhinton, where he crashed head-on into another vehicle before being arrested.
Short, of Ridgemount Road, Carlisle, later admitted dangerous driving, aggravated vehicle taking and no insurance. At the city’s crown court today (WED), he was jailed for six months by Judge David Potter, who said of the London Road overtakes: “The consequences of a collision at that sort of speed could have been fatal.”
The judge added: “Through the residential streets of Harraby you drove highly dangerously. You drove at speed, across junctions without giving way. You passed a number of children who, at ten to three, were playing in the street.”
Short must serve a two-year driving ban when released, and take an extended test.
