It is a cheap, quick and readily-available buzz.
Normally inhaled from a balloon, nitrous oxide – or laughing gas, or ‘noz’ as it’s widely-known – causes a short 30 second high and can make the user collapse in fits of giggles. But if you take the Class C drug, which is more commonly used as an anaesthetic or as a propellant gas for making whipped cream, and get behind the wheel of a car the consequences can be deadly.
There are no official figures for the number of fatal crashes caused by drivers who had been inhaling laughing gas, in part because of how quickly the chemical leaves the body after being taken. But there’s no doubting it’s a serious problem on the UK’s roads and motorways.
Click here to hear the latest from Manchester’s courts in our newsletter
In the last four years alone at least five people have been killed in Greater Manchester by drivers who had been ‘doing balloons’. In the latest case to hit the headlines 23-year-old Daud Nidhal Mohammed, from Salford, was seen inhaling the gas at a petrol station moments before he drove his black Audi A5 over physicist Sam Johnston.
Mr Johnston, 28, was returning from a general election party when he was hit just before 3am on July 5, 2024. As the University of Manchester masters graduate lay motionless at the junction of Trinity Way and Egerton Street, he was run over by a second car being driven by a blameless taxi driver. Mr Johnston suffered catastrophic injuries and died at the scene despite attempts to revive him.
Daud Nidhal Mohammed(Image: GMP)
Mohammed drove away from the scene before handing himself into police later that day. He was released on bail only to get into trouble again.
At 1am on June 20, 2025 Mohammed was caught after fleeing from a stolen VW Tiago involved in a 60mph police chase before mounting a pavement and crashing into a wall. Some 24 canisters of nitrous oxide were found in the car.
Last week Mohammed, of Adelphi Wharf in Salford, was jailed for five years and three months after he admitted causing death by dangerous driving; causing death while uninsured; and allowing himself to be in a stolen vehicle.
Here we take a look at some of the other killer drivers who caused fatal crashes in Greater Manchester after inhaling nitrous oxide…
Uways Hussain and Usmon Mahmood
Uways Hussain (top left) and Usmon Mahmood (top right) were jailed after causing the death of Sylvester Abayomi (bottom) by dangerous driving
Uways Hussain and Usmon Mahmood filmed themselves inhaling nitrous oxide from balloons while driving at speeds reaching 139mph. Hussain, 20, was behind the wheel of a VW Golf GTI belonging to Mahmood, 23, in the early hours of March 9 this year when they drove through a red light and smashed into Sylvester Abayomi’s Volvo S40 in Burnage.
Mr Abayomi, 50, was on his way to work when he was hit. He suffered catastrophic chest injuries and sadly died later that morning.
An Apple watch worn by Hussain automatically called 999 after detecting the crash. Unaware of the call, the pair were recorded talking about reporting the car as stolen, arguing about who was going to say they were the driver; and discussing how to remove DNA and ordering an Uber. The pair then fled and the scene and were later found by police hiding in gardens surrounded by nitrous oxide canisters they had removed from the car.
Hussain, 20, of Burnage, was jailed for 11 years and eight months for causing death by dangerous driving; causing death by driving a vehicle whilst uninsured; conspiracy to pervert the course of justice; failing to provide a specimen for analysis and driving without insurance.
Hussain, 20, of Burnage, was jailed for 11 years and eight months(Image: GMP)
Mahmood, 23, of Levenshulme, was jailed for 12 years and nine months for aiding and abetting causing death by dangerous driving; aiding and abetting causing death by driving a vehicle whilst uninsured and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
Rohani JillaniSnapchat video filmed by killer driver moments before horror crash
Filming with one hand while inhaling laughing gas balloons with the other, Rohani Jillani, reached speeds of up to 98mph on the Mancunian Way. Moments later the 25-year-old passed out and slumped on the steering wheel of his Mercedes A180.
The car veered to the left and crashed into a viaduct. His 17-year-old passenger Nadia Yusuf died, and his other passenger Shafi Sufi, now 20, survived but was seriously hurt.
Jillani, of Wilmslow Road, Rusholme, suffered a brain injury and was said to have no memory of the in the January 2022 smash smash. In October 2023 he was jailed for eight years and eight months, after pleading guilty to causing death and serious injury by dangerous driving.
Arran Donnelly
Arran Donnelly (Image: GMP)
The four friends were only on a short drive as they made their way to a pub – but that was enough time for Arran Donnelly’s driving to have devastating consequences. The 28-year-old was seen using nitrous oxide two minutes before killing his friend Ryan Evans in a devastating crash in Stockport.
Minshull Street Crown Court heard how Donnelly was seen driving at up to ‘two-and-a-half times’ the speed of other vehicles in Reddish on Saturday, February 24, 2024. He lost control of the car while approaching a bend on Broadstone Road, mounting the kerb before crashing into a wall.
Donnelly and the two passengers sat on the left-hand-side of the car survived, but Mr Evans – who was sat behind the driver – tragically died at the scene. When Donnelly was arrested police discovered six balloons for nitrous oxide in the car, alongside ‘several large cannisters’ of the gas.
Donnelly, of Ince Close, Heaton Norris, was jailed for six years and nine months after he pleaded guilty to death by dangerous driving.
Cameron Hughes
Cameron Hughes used laughing gas and his phone before his van plummeted off a bridge
Pumping his fist to music, using his phone and inhaling laughing gas from a bright yellow balloon. That’s what reckless Cameron Hughes was filming doing while behind the wheel during a journey that would end in tragedy.
Blackley delivery driver Hughes, 24, was giving family friend Bonney-Rae Barrow, 15, a lift to see her relatives at a meal in Great Harwood, Lancashire, in July 2023 when he lost control of his Mercedes Sprinter on a slip road. The vehicle plunged 5m down a ravine, seriously injuring Bonney-Rae, who died the following day in Wythenshawe hospital.
Hughes, of Haddington Drive, Blackley, admitted causing death by dangerous driving and was jailed for seven-and-a-half years.
Jacob Gaskell
Jacob Gaskell(Image: GMP)
Jacob Gaskell was high on cocaine and nitrous oxide when the Land Rover Freelander he was driving mounted the pavement in Ormskirk Road, Pemberton and ploughed into a mum-of-three Laura Gaskell outside a pub. The hit-and-run happened the night before Gaskell’s 19th birthday in April 2022 and just two months after he was handed a suspended sentence for a previous dangerous driving offence.
Cowardly Gaskell then fled the scene on foot as 44-year-old Laura lay dying. Gaskell, of Marlbrough Avenue, Ince, was jailed for nine years at Bolton Crown Court.