Driver Sentenced for Fatal High Speed Collision on A3

Published on: 28 Nov, 2017
Updated on: 30 Nov, 2017

Nick Tay

A man was jailed following a high speed crash on the A3 which caused the death of his girlfriend.

The crash happened near Tolworth on the northbound of the A3 in the early hours of March 22 this year and killed 24-year-old Maria Jimenez Montero.

Nick Tay, 25, of Francis Crick Road, Guildford pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and causing death by driving an uninsured vehicle.

Yesterday (November 27, 2017), at Kingston Crown Court, he was sentenced to five years in prison and disqualified from driving for four and a half years and will need to take an extended re-test.

An investigation by the police Serious Collision Investigation Unit revealed that Tay was driving at 110mph, in the 50mph zone, when the crash happened at 1.20am.

The vehicle, a Peugeot 206, crossed both lanes, hit the central reservation and rebounded back towards the grass verge and rolled, at which point Ms Montero was thrown from the vehicle.

Witnesses told officers that the Peugeot had driven past them at high speed before the collision several.

Examination of the vehicle by officers suggested that the front passenger seatbelt was locked in position, indicating that it was not being worn at the time of the collision.

Sergeant Eddie Ryan from the Serious Collision Investigation Unit said: “This was a tragic collision that has left a family without their daughter and was an incident that was entirely preventable.

“Nick Tay chose to drive at a catastrophically dangerous speed that was more than twice the limit for that area of the road.

“Evidence gathered by officers also show that sadly Ms Montero wasn’t wearing a seatbelt which is likely to have led to her being thrown from the vehicle as it rolled. The driver was wearing his seatbelt and was able to crawl out of the car with only a scratch.

“Speed limits are exactly that, limits. They are not a target to overcome and the measures in place on roads are there for a reason – to keep motorists and those around them safe.”

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