Ferrari driver left baby with permanent injuries

Jonny Humphries
BBC News, Liverpool
Cheshire Constabulary A catastrophically damaged gun-metal grey Ferrari sitting on a slip road next to a carriageway. The driver's side door panel is gone, the front wheel is missing and deflated airbags are draped over each doorCheshire Constabulary
The Ferrari was left completely wrecked after the crash

A man who drove his Ferrari at speeds up to 136mph (164kmh) struck another car and left a three-week old baby boy with life-changing brain injuries.

Daniel Halliwell claimed he had only been travelling at about 70-80mph when he hit the Ford Fiesta on the A558 Daresbury Expressway in Runcorn, Cheshire, at 17:05 BST on 21 July 2023.

Police experts later calculated the sports car had been travelling at between 102 and 111mph when he lost control and smashed into the other vehicle, driven by the baby boy's mother.

Halliwell, 35, was jailed for 32 months at Chester Crown Court on Tuesday after admitting causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

Halliwell himself was injured but later recovered, while the baby was critically injured and will suffer life-long complications, Cheshire Police said.

Dashcam footage released by the force showed the Ferrari hurtling along the carriageway, which has a 60mph speed limit, before swerving towards the Fiesta which was joining from the junction with Manor Park Avenue.

Cheshire Constabulary A still image showing a grey Ferrari car on a dual carriageway swerving left towards a slip road, where the police have blurred out the victim's vehicle.Cheshire Constabulary
Dash-cam footage captured the moment the Ferrari swerved towards the Ford

The force also released footage of Halliwell, of Hatters Close in Daresbury, being asked by a police officer what speed he was doing, to which he replied: "I would say 70 or 80, something like that.

"I know that'll be that because I was only in second gear."

Sgt Andy Dennison criticised Halliwell's "shocking" and "reckless" driving, with witnesses describing it as "fast, intimidating and frightening".

He added: "I genuinely don't know how anyone could think driving at such speeds and so recklessly among busy traffic could not have been so dangerous to others, himself and his passenger."

Halliwell was also banned from driving for five years, to begin from his release from prison.

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