Taxi Driver Rushing Heavily Pregnant Woman To Hospital Runs Over Drunk Pedestrian, Jailed

A taxi driver in the U.K. has been sentenced to two months in prison Monday after pleading guilty to carelessly running over a drunken pedestrian, which resulted in her death.

Anis Mohamed, 64, of Osmaston Road, Leicester, was rushing a heavily pregnant woman to the hospital on Jan. 11, 2020, when he got involved in the collision with the victim Natasha Baker, 37, Leicester Live reported. Baker, who was under the influence of alcohol, laid down on the road blocking Mohamed’s way and the latter unwittingly ran over her.

A bystander’s mobile footage presented at the Leicester Crown Court showed Baker’s final moments when she was seen standing in front of an Uber taxi just ahead of Mohamed’s vehicle. "I don’t care, run me over," Baker was heard saying in the video.

"The defendant was behind the Uber, taking a man and his wife - who was 38 weeks pregnant and in considerable pain - to the hospital to check if she was going into labor,” the prosecuting attorney David Outterside told the court, according to Leicester Live. "At around, 4.04 am the defendant's Vauxhall Vivaro seven-seater drove over the victim who was lying intoxicated in the road. Shortly before 4 am an ambulance driver saw the victim staggering on the footpath in Coleman Road, looking as if she was drunkenly heading home from an evening out.”

After Baker gestured with her hands telling the Uber driver to turn his vehicle around and change his route, he did so to avoid her. Baker then lay down on the road and Mohamed, who failed to see her, accelerated his vehicle and "shoot forward," running over Baker and dragging her body 11 meters away from the spot.

Baker was taken to the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham with life-threatening injuries. She was declared dead at the hospital, according to a news release by the Leicester Police.

With prison sentence, Mohamed was also banned from driving for one year, according to the statement. Baker’s sister, Gemma, described the former as a "massive influence" in her life.

"Tasha was a massive influence in my life. She was meant to be the birthing partner for my son and it broke my heart her not being there. Instead of being happy at the birth of my son, all I could do was cry," Gemma said in a statement, according to the police statement. “Life without her is never going to be the same again, we have never been apart."