A driver who was being followed by police told his passengers to “jump out the car and run” seconds before he crashed into a tree and suffered fatal injuries, an inquest has heard.
Muhammad Qasim, 29, was captured speaking on an 18-second video taken by backseat passenger Mohammed Ibrahim moments before he failed to negotiate a bend in the road on Island Road, Handsworth, in the early hours of October 2 2023, and crashed his BMW into the central reservation.
Mr Qasim died in hospital later the same day after suffering a “catastrophic” head injury.
The police officer who was following Mr Qasim’s car before the crash has denied he was in a pursuit, saying he was not pursuit-trained and was following the vehicle so intelligence checks could be carried out after he saw the BMW going “easily double” the 30mph speed limit on Church Lane.
PC Paul Withers told an inquest into Mr Qasim’s death at Birmingham Coroners Court on Thursday that he did not know if the BMW driver was aware he was following him as he did not have his blue lights on and the manner of Mr Qasim’s driving had not changed throughout the interaction.
On Friday, Mr Ibrahim, who was severely injured in the crash but survived, told the court that Mr Qasim had been aware the police car was following him and that he had increased his speed as he drove “loops” around Island Road.
A video clip recorded by Mr Ibrahim before the fatal crash was shown to the jury, at the beginning of which Mr Qasim could be heard telling his passengers: “Jump out of the car and run.”
Mr Ibrahim could be heard telling him to “chill”, which he said was him trying to tell the driver to slow down, with Mr Qasim telling him to “shut up”.
The backseat passenger said he did not see Mr Qasim drinking alcohol or smoking after he was picked up by him at about 1am on October 2, although the inquest heard the driver was one and a half times over the drink-drive limit and had recently smoked cannabis.
In a statement, front seat passenger Ria Garcha, who had been picked up by Mr Qasim at about 6.30pm on October 1, said the pair had been “drinking a lot” together and that he had empty vodka bottles in his car that he wanted to get rid of.
She said he was “driving kind of mad” and that both she and Mr Ibrahim, whom she had never met before Mr Qasim had picked him up in the Alum Rock area, had told him to slow down.
She said: “Sometimes he was listening to us, sometimes not. When we first saw the police, the boy (Mr Ibrahim) said, ‘oh there’s the police’ and he put his foot down and went faster.
“I was telling him to slow down, they weren’t coming. They were telling me to shut up. I couldn’t see any lights or sirens behind us.
“A couple of minutes later the boy said the police were there again.
“We were doing loops around this part of (Island Road). The boy said they were chasing us … I said if they were chasing us, they’d be behind us and I couldn’t see them.
“When I did see them, they didn’t have their lights or sirens on. I said, ‘they’re not coming for us’. The boy in the back started filming, he was saying it was a police chase.
“Qasim said he wanted to pull over and run and told us to be ready. He drove really fast.
“It seemed like he couldn’t hear anything, he was zoned out. He crashed into the tree and he went flying.”
Mr Ibrahim told the court he could not remember much of the incident, but said he had started filming before the crash because, earlier in the day, he had been stopped and searched by police.
He said: “I didn’t want the same thing to repeat again. I can record what’s happening … it would show my side of the story in case the police stopped us.”
Speaking of Mr Qasim’s behaviour before the crash, he said: “Firstly, he was calm, he wanted to make sure the police weren’t following but then he changed his reaction when he realised the police were chasing him … he started telling me to shut up.”
He added: “When the police kept looping behind him, he was trying to get away from them.”
The inquest continues.
