Judge's warning over using 'nos' at the wheel as laughing gas-inhaling driver is jailed for leaving young woman with fractured spine in Yorkshire crash

Zamir Shah, 27, was driving female friend Zeenat Naz, then 18, around Bradford when he lost control of the car while attempting a dangerous overtaking manoeuvre on Cottingley Cliffe Road in June 2021.

He rear-ended a Porsche and the Golf ended up ‘flying through the air’ vertically with its nose facing the ground before landing on top of another car and coming to rest on its roof.

The only seriously injured party was Miss Naz, who ended up with multiple fractures and nerve damage and had to miss two years of her college course.

She had begged him to pull over in the build-up to the crash and said he had begun driving ‘erratically’ after inhaling nitrous oxide – known by its street names of ‘nos’ or laughing gas – from a balloon attached to a canister.

After the collision, Shah, of Girlington, fled the scene as his passenger lay unconscious on the road and Miss Naz told Bradford Crown Court that she had not seen or heard from him since. He returned to the area posing as an innocent bystander, but was recognised by the Porsche driver who filmed him on his mobile phone.

Shah pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving and accepted he was unlicensed and uninsured, having been disqualified due to a previous conviction following a police chase in 2013.

During the hearing, Judge Richard Mansell referenced the increasing number of cases coming before the courts involving drivers inhaling nos at the wheel, adding that it made them ‘light-headed and overconfident’ and ‘is not safe’ to take.

Sentencing Shah to three and a half years in prison and banning him from driving for a further four years, Judge Mansell said: “This incident was one of mindless stupidity. Nobody should be inhaling gas while driving – it leaves you unable to focus. It was a miracle your driving didn’t kill anyone. Leaving the scene was an act of selfish cowardice and your victim may not fully recover.”