Driver who hit 12-year-old boy on motorway tells jury he is ‘broken man’

Callum Rycroft died on the M62 in West Yorkshire on August 5 last year.

Callum Rycroft, from Leeds, was killed as he attempted to run across the M62 in West Yorkshire last year (West Yorkshire Police/PA) (PA Media)

A driver who hit a 12-year-old boy as he ran across a motorway has told a jury he is a “broken man”.

Prosecutors have told Bradford Crown Court that Shahid Ilyas, 48, was not responsible for the death of Callum Rycroft, who died on the M62 in West Yorkshire on August 5 last year when he was hit by the defendant’s black Toyota.

But they do allege that Ilyas drove dangerously after the collision because he did not stop as soon as he safely could, despite “massive damage” to his windscreen which severely impeded his view of the road.

I know I look normal on the outside but inside I'm a broken man

Shahid Ilyas

On Friday, Ilyas told the jury: “I was driving along at a normal speed, minding my own business and suddenly there was a loud bang and the windscreen bowed in.”

He said: “I was in shock and I was traumatised. I didn’t know if I was dead or alive.”

Ilyas told the court how he squeezed his leg to see if he could feel anything, because he did not know if what was happening to him was real or a nightmare.

He told the jury: “I know I look normal on the outside but inside I’m a broken man.”

Ilyas said: “My life has been turned upside down because of this accident and it was not my fault.

“I did not create this accident. I did not commit a crime and I’ve been treated like a criminal.”

Ilyas described how, immediately after the collision, he put on his hazard lights and pulled the Toyota to the left hand side of the motorway and got out of the vehicle.

But he said he realised there was no hard shoulder on this stretch of so-called smart motorway and he was in a live lane with traffic “flying past”.

He said vehicles were moving round him and sounding their horns.

The defendant said: “I was thinking to go to a service station and that’s what I did, and that’s what it says in the Highway Code.”

Prosecutors have told the jury the case against Ilyas is that he drove on after the collision for about two-a-half miles, ignoring at least two clear places to stop, before pulling into an Esso service station on Whitehall Lane, in Bradford.

Ilyas told the jury: “I went left, left and left again and I reached a service station which was probably three or four minutes from the motorway.”

He added: “In a state of shock and a state of trauma I went to go to a service station.

“I do not remember looking for a layby, or bus stop or people’s driveway to stop.”

Asked about the state of his shattered windscreen, Ilyas said: “I had enough view to see where I was going.”

He told the jury that he rang the company which hired him the car when he reached the garage and admitted he told them that he thought he had hit an animal.

The defendant told the jury that he did not know what he had hit and he was guessing, thinking something may have fallen off a truck.

He said he only realised what had actually happened the next day when stories about Callum’s death appeared in the news.

The court has heard how Ilyas then contacted a solicitor for advice who rang the police on his behalf.

The defendant said he has not been able to drive since the incident due to the trauma.

The jury of six men and six women was shown footage of the fatal collision on the motorway and some of the build-up to the incident.

Michael Smith, prosecuting, told the court that the incident happened after Callum’s father, Matthew Rycroft, was driving drunk on the motorway and overturned his Audi Q5 on the slip road to Hartshead Moor services, near Huddersfield.

Rycroft and Callum left the vehicle and were seen on CCTV, shown to the court on Friday, walking along the busy M62 in the dark before crossing into the central reservation.

At one point, Rycroft was seen falling over and being helped up by Callum, the court heard.

Rycroft then crossed back over to the hard shoulder and was followed by Callum, who ran directly into the path of Ilyas’s Toyota.

Rycroft made it to the other side and carried on without looking back for his son, the court heard.

The jury was told that Rycroft admitted his son’s manslaughter in a separate prosecution and has been dealt with by the courts.

Ilyas, of Moorfield Chase, Farnworth, Bolton, denies one count of dangerous driving.

The jury has been told it is likely to be sent out to consider its verdict later on Friday afternoon.