University student Ryan Sandhu, 21, suffered a fatal head injury after Saqlane Zafar smashed into his Ford Fiesta on the A38(M) in June 2024
17:43, 23 Jan 2026Updated 18:48, 23 Jan 2026
Saqlane Zafar caused the death of Ryan Sandhu on the Aston Expressway in Birmingham(Image: )
A speeding driver who killed a man in a horror smash after ‘racing’ on Birmingham’s Aston Expressway has been jailed.
Saqlane Zafar ploughed a rented Audi SQ7 into the back of Ryan Sandhu’s Ford Fiesta shortly after midnight on June 2, 2024 shortly after he was seen inhaling nitrous oxide and staggering on CCTV.
The 21-year-old university student suffered a catastrophic head injury and died at the scene.
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Zafar had been weaving in and out of queuing traffic, under and overtaking as well as using closed lanes as he ‘raced the clock’.
He narrowly missed a road worker and avoided a head-on collision with an oncoming vehicle before careering into Mr Sandhu’s car at 91mph.
He then disposed of nitrous oxide canisters over the edge of the wall of the A38M before fleeing the scene in a Nissan Qashqai driven by friend Muhammad Hamza, who later embarked on a high-speed chase of his own as he tried in vain to evade police.
Zafar, aged 28, of Saltley, pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving.
At Birmingham Crown Court today (Friday) he was sentenced to 15 years and banned from driving for the same period of time.
Judge Peter Cooke stated Zafar was driving like a ‘maniac’ and declared the case was ‘as bad as it can get’.
Hamza, aged 29, of Grantham Road, Sparkbrook, denied wrong-doing but was found guilty of perverting the course of justice and dangerous driving.
He was sentenced to four years and six months, as well as banned from driving for five years and three months.
Mr Sandhu was about to embark on the final year of his degree at Staffordshire University.
That night he had been out celebrating a friend’s birthday and was returning home to see his family ahead of a funeral for his late uncle the following day.
In a heartbreaking statement his mother Balbiro Kaur Sandhu described Ryan as the ‘baby of the family’ and ‘our biggest purpose’.
Ryan Sandhu(Image: )
She said they had been left ‘traumatised’ by his loss and unable to function.
His sister Kim Sandhu told the court: “Knowing his death was caused by someone driving dangerously, under the influence of alcohol and nitrous oxide is unbearable.
“These were choices, selfish, reckless and criminal choices.
“He was taken from us in the most senseless, avoidable way imaginable.”
Mr Sandhu’s girlfriend Molly Batkin broke down in tears as she described the future they had planned together.
She said: “When Ryan’s life ended part of me went with him. A part I will never get back.”
Zafar had only rented the Audi from 6pm the previous evening until 9am the following morning.
CCTV captured him inhaling nitrous oxide and staggering at a Shell petrol station on Stratford Road minutes before the incident.
He also had what appeared to be a large cannabis joint resting on his ear.
Zafar got held up at red lights at the Matalan roundabout while Hamza, in the Nissan, went ahead and circled the island.
Prosecutor Daniel Oscroft said: “At this point Mr Zafar’s driving became extremely dangerous.
“Effectively from the moment this light goes green he’s accelerating almost the whole time.
“There was queuing traffic on the A38(M) heading north, workmen in the road, closed lanes.
“Mr Zafar ignored all of this and put his foot down on the accelerator.
“The manner of his driving was not just dangerous but so dangerous that serious injury or death was almost inevitable.”
CCTV captured the Audi plough into a row of traffic cones and send a sign flying into the air moments after road worker Jason Evans had placed them.
He was left in shock and broke down in tears afterwards, stating if he had not heard the ‘popping’ sound of traffic cones and jumped out of the way he would have been killed.
Dashcam footage also showed the Audi narrowly missing an oncoming vehicle as it swung across lanes.
At the time the speed limit on the motorway had been reduced to 40mph and most of the other traffic heading north was crawling.
Judge Cooke said: “The logical inference of what this was all about is that Zafar was racing, not against his friend, but against the clock.
“His purpose was to put the Audi through its paces on the A38(M) with no consideration for his own ability to control it, no consideration for the road conditions and no consideration for the danger to other people.
“It was a grossly irresponsible plan hatched only after the consumption of intoxicants.”
Such was the force of the smash into Mr Sandhu’s Fiesta it jolted forward and hit a Mercedes but the family inside that car were unharmed.
Miraculously, Zafar and his unidentified passenger also escaped uninjured despite not wearing seatbelts.
They immediately exited the Audi and walked over to the side of the Aston Expressway to dispose of nitrous oxide canisters over the edge of the wall.
The pair then ‘casually’ walked back down the expressway in the direction they had came.
Moments later Hamza, who had himself moved in and out of traffic, pulled up on the A38(M) in the Nissan to collect them.
The car was later spotted around half an hour later and police commenced a pursuit.
Hamza determinedly evaded them by reaching high speeds and driving on the wrong side of the road before crashing into a lamppost.
He and Zafar were arrested shortly afterwards while a third man seen exiting the vehicle has yet to be found.
Zafar was so intoxicated he could not stand up. He refused breath and blood tests.
He has previous convictions for dangerous driving and driving while disqualified.
In a grovelling letter to Mr Sandhu’s family, read to the court, he said he was ‘deeply sorry’.
In a further letter Zafar admitted he did not confess his guilt before the first day of his trial because he was ‘petrified of going to prison’ and ‘selfish’.
Hamish McCallum, representing Hamza, told the court at the time he was unaware that the collision had resulted in a fatality, adding he was now remorseful for his actions.