A "CALLOUS" driver who killed a young mother when he ploughed into her car while hurtling round a "make believe race track" has been jailed for six years.

Tyler Kendall had been drinking at a party he threw with his brother while their parents were away on a cruise and he was "showing off" to two friends as he sat behind the wheel of his powerful BMW.

The 22-year-old electrician had forced another motorist to take action to avoid a collision as he overtook recklessly and he hit speeds up to 75mph in Ellowes Road, Lower Gornal, on September 22 last year.

Robert Price, prosecuting, said Kendall had hit 30-year-old Vikki Jones' Alfa Romeo as she slowly edged out of a junction.

There was a high speed impact and Ms Jones' car was knocked into a van while the BMW struck a Mitsubishi, pushing it 40 metres from where it had been parked.

Ms Jones, who worked at Birmingham Airport, suffered "catastrophic" injuries and died at the scene.

Her daughter, who was 11 at the time, also suffered serious injuries, including a broken arm, and was left hysterical and distressed at her mother's side.

Kendall fled to his home in Whitebeam Close, Lower Gornal, where Wolverhampton Crown Court heard that he had told a friend: "I have crashed my car. There is alcohol in my system. I am drunk. I can't go back."

Judge Michael Challinor told him: "You deliberately drove at speed around a make believe race track. This was a case of prolonged bad driving at a greatly excessive speed when you were affected by drink."

He said Kendall, who had a previous conviction for careless driving when his car mounted the kerb and struck two schoolgirls, had shown a callous disregard by leaving the scene.

"You completely failed to heed what other people would have regarded as a wake-up call when you hit those youngsters," he said.

"It did not have any effect on you."

The judge said Kendall had been drinking at the party but police could not get an accurate reading about the alcohol level in his blood because he had fled the scene and did not hand himself in until the following morning.

He told Kendall, who sat with his head bowed in the dock, that he had read moving statements from Ms Jones' family about the devastation caused by her death, adding: "Long after you have been released and returned to normal life her relations will still have to bear their grievous loss."

In a victim impact statement Ms Jones' mother, Jane Jones, said they thought about her every day and the pain was still strong.

"I feel as though my heart has been ripped out of my chest," she added.

Ms Jones' brother, Stuart Jones, said they had been shattered by her loss, adding: "It is the worst thing a family can go through. It was truly devastating and we will never recover."

Kendall admitted causing death by dangerous driving, causing serious injury by dangerous driving and also leaving the scene of an accident.

Andrew Tucker, defending Kendall, who was further disqualified from driving for eight years, told the court he was full of remorse for the terrible consequences of his foolish actions.

He accepted what he had done had been disastrous for the family and regretted the moral weakness that resulted in him leaving the scene of the accident.

"His position is exacerbated by the alcohol he drank but he had not had a massive amount," maintained Mr Tucker.