A BRADFORD councillor has relived the terrible moment when he realised a seriously injured road accident victim was his own father.
City Ward Councillor Nazam Azam’s victim personal statement was read out at Bradford Crown Court today before Ashfaq Valli, a National Health Service IT analyst, of Lemon Street, Wibsey, Bradford, was jailed for 32 months.
He had pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving to Mohammed Azam, Cllr Azam’s father, on September 21 last year.
Cllr Azam said he customarily attended at the scene of local accidents out of civic duty and concern for the way some people drove in the area.
On the night his father was struck by Valli’s speeding BMW, he received a text telling him about an incident on Little Horton Lane and went to investigate.
The police officers at the scene thought the outlook for the victim “fairly bleak,” he said.
At that stage, he did not know it was his father that had been catastrophically injured and was being attended to by paramedics.
When he discovered the harrowing truth, he was inconsolable and rushed home.
He attended at Leeds General Infirmary “in a state of panic,” to be told his father was in an induced coma and may not survive.
Cllr Azam said he found more than 600 missed calls on his phone from people wanting to know how his father was.
Mr Azam was discharged from hospital in January but his injuries have left him paralysed from the waist down and needing a hoist to get into his wheelchair.
At that time, home carers were coming five times a day but he needed 24/7 attention, his son said.
His brain trauma had left him needing speech therapy and he had no memory of the day he was injured.
Cllr Azam told of the devastation to his family after his “fit, healthy and active” father was so horrifically injured.
He had loved walking, doing up to five miles a day “rain or shine,” and attended at the mosque every day.
“He was proud, independent and noble and that has been changed and taken away from us,” Cllr Azam said.
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