A motorist who killed a student less than a minute after ending a video call on the A1 sobbed through her sentencing. Fiona Phippen has been jailed for four years and three months after smashing her car into a service station forecourt.
Court Details Shocking CCTV Footage
Lincoln Crown Court was presented with graphic and shocking CCTV footage of Fiona Phippen's Nissan Qashqai striking psychology student Urwah Tanveer at speeds reaching 51mph, as the 20-year-old stood next to her family's stationary Mercedes. Phippen wept in the dock during sections of her sentencing hearing, including when the court heard how her victim had been preparing for her graduation ceremony when she was killed.
Family Devastation
The 45-year-old mother-of-two, of Church Close in Great Wilbraham, admitted in April to causing both death and serious injury by dangerous driving. Judge Simon Hirst heard that Phippen missed Urwah's brother by mere inches. The collision resulted in multiple fractures to her 83-year-old grandmother, who had been seated inside the Mercedes.
Urwah, from London, had achieved a 2:1 from Queen Mary University and aspired to pursue a career in the NHS. The charity shop volunteer passed away in hospital a day following the collision, while her grandmother sustained hand, chest and rib injuries.
Details of the Incident
Evidence presented to the court indicated that Phippen had engaged cruise control and failed to apply the brakes during the six seconds after she departed the A1, while travelling at an effectively constant speed of between 41mph and 51mph. When passing sentence, Judge Hirst stated it was accepted that a six-minute WhatsApp video call, made using a mobile phone in a dashboard holder, had concluded 38 seconds prior to the collision.
Phippen maintained she had been distracted by another vehicle on the northbound A1 moments before the incident at Foston Services near Grantham in Lincolnshire amid ideal road conditions on the afternoon of 29 June 2024.
Victim Impact Statements
Following the hearing of victim impact statements, the judge told Phippen: "Exactly why this collision occurred is still unclear. I have heard from Urwah's parents and sister. It is clear from everything I have heard and have read about her that she was much-loved and will be missed for a very long time to come."
The judge additionally disqualified Phippen from driving for seven years and six weeks, telling her: "For over six minutes before the collision you were on the phone in a video-call. That ended 38 seconds before the collision. It ended 32 seconds before you left the carriageway. It is plain to me that you had insufficient awareness of what was going on around you on the A1."
Ms Tanveer's father, mother and sister each delivered victim impact statements conveying their devastation at her loss. Her mother Nahail Idris, an NHS worker who was in a nearby shop at the time of the crash, held up a photograph of her always smiling daughter and spoke directly to the dock during her statement, telling the court: "My daughter was killed in front of my eyes. Having subsequently seen the video footage I realise how close Phippen came to killing two of my children. I now exist with a constant scream within me. I will live with this trauma and the loss of my daughter for the rest of my life. My life will now always be about what Urwah never got to do."
Turning to face Phippen in the dock, she said: "This is my life sentence and my family's life sentence."
