Man jailed for causing death of much-loved Shipley man

Window salesman Daniel Midgley was said to have treated the road “like a dual carriageway”, and was pulling in and out of traffic en route to meet a customer, when his Toyota Auris smashed into Parvin Vekaria’s Nissan Qashqai on a blind bend on the afternoon of April 4, 2022.

Mr Vekaria, 59, from Shipley, was seriously injured in the collision on Hebden Bridge Road at Pecket Well, between Hebden Bridge and Haworth. He died 11 days later in Bradford Royal Infirmary.

Prosecutor Andrew Stranex told the court that Midgley, now 26, of Balmoral Chase in Leeds, had ignored road markings advising drivers to “slow” and had failed to take an opportunity to pull back into his own lane moments before the crash.

Another driver who witnessed him on the wrong side of the road later told police he felt it would “not end well”.

Mr Stranex said Midgley had demonstrated “a flagrant disregard for the rules of the road...as he was effectively entering what was a blind bend". 

'A very special and important person is missing' 

Speaking at Midgley’s sentencing on Friday Mr Vekaria’s wife, children, and sister all provided powerful and emotive statements.

Janet Vekaria described her “larger than life” football-loving husband of 34 years as her best friend and that she felt lost and could not see a future without him.

She said: “Parv was a very confident and sociable person. His nickname was ‘Party Parv’ and he was a collector of friends. He loved socialising and was often the person who brought everyone together. He is greatly missed by his many friends as well as his family.

“Whenever we have a happy occasion to celebrate, we’re sad because a very special and important person is missing.

“And I am sad for him. He was enjoying his early retirement and we had plans for when I retired.

“I am immensely proud of our two children and, as their mum, the hardest part of this has been watching the impact that Parv’s death has had on them. They are heartbroken, and there’s nothing I can do to make it better.”

She said between the crash and his death, her husband was in a lot of pain and had periods of delirium. He became increasingly frightened as he realised how ill he was.

She said she would always be haunted by the sight of her children holding their father’s hand as his life support was turned off.

She added: “Parv was larger than life, and he has left a massive hole in ours. I miss his company, his kindness, his love, and his intellect. He was part of my life for a long time, and no one will ever replace him.

“I am heartbroken that he was taken from us so unnecessarily.”

Roshni Vekaria, a student nurse, said the impact of her father’s death had affected her confidence and increased her anxiety and feelings of isolation.

She said she was anxious “all the time” when family and friends were driving, and had had consistent nightmares of car crashes and having to watch her father die.

She added: “My dad always encouraged me and had my back. There will be a huge gap in my life without him.

“Nothing feels complete without him.”

In his statement Nikhil Vekaria, a civil servant, said his confidence had been shattered by the trauma of his father’s death, that he felt vulnerable and anxious, and had needed counselling.

He said: “Every time I have a successful or happy moment my first thought is, ‘I wish I could tell my dad about this’. I fear that this is something that I will feel for the rest of my life.

“This incident has robbed me of having my dad in my future. I feel envious when I see close friends with their dads, something which, in turn, I feel guilty about.

“It feels so cruel that he has been taken in this way, and it’s something that will impact me for as long as I live.”

'Lives have been irreversibly damaged' 

Mitigating for Midgley, Mike Walsh said he had “racked his brain” to recall why he had driven in such a way on the day of the crash, but that he could not recall what caused him to do so.

He said Midgley accepted the situation was “inexplicable” and that he could not explain it to himself or others.

In sentencing Midgley to 56 months – or four years and eight months – in prison for causing death by dangerous driving, His Honour Judge Jonathan Rose said the crash may have been due to Midgley’s impatience to get to his destination.

He said: “No sentence that this court will impose will be or could be a measure of the life of this man. Nor will it compensate for his death or be any comfort to those whose lives have been irreversibly damaged by the loss of this much-loved man.

“The psychological harm in a case such as this goes beyond mere bereavement.

“It is of course trite comment to observe that none of this was necessary.”