A medical student who killed his best friend in a ‘tragic’ car accident has been spared jail.

Mohammed Adriece, 23, of Greengate Street, Glodwick, Oldham, was trying to overtake another vehicle at 45mph on Oldham Road when his Volkswagen Golf careered out of control and smashed into a bus.

One of his passengers, aspiring lawyer Asam Zulqurnain, 22, from Werneth, suffered fatal injuries in the accident. A second passenger, Zahid Shakoor, suffered serious injuries after he rocketed through the rear window of the car and landed yards down the street.

In January, a jury at Manchester Crown Court failed to reach a verdict on a charge of causing death by dangerous driving. Adriece then admitted a lesser charge of causing death by careless driving.

The fifth-year medical student’s conviction means that the General Medical Council will have to decide if he can pursue his chosen career in a fitness to practise hearing.

Judge Anthony Gee QC – who sentenced Liverpool university student Adriece to 250 hours' unpaid work and an 18-month driving ban – said the case was 'exceptional'.

Earlier, Robert Kearney, prosecuting, said Mr Zulqurnain’s devastated family bore 'no ill will’ towards the defendant.

The court heard that Adriece had been driving three friends to Oldham on the evening of March 1 when the accident happened at Oldham Road’s junction with Varley Street, Miles Platting.

A Jeep Cherokee started to drift out of the left-hand lane without indicating just as Adriece was trying to overtake it – forcing him to steer right to avoid crashing with it. He then had to steer sharply left as he clipped a traffic island, before steering in the other direction again to avoid mounting the kerb.

The sequence of manoeuvres sent the fully-laden car into a ‘fatal spin’, Mr Kearney told court, travelling for 26 metres before slamming into a single-decker bus, rotating 360 degrees, and skidding further down the road.

Impact

Mr Kearney said Asam Zulqurnain took the 'full force of the impact', and that even if he had been wearing a seatbelt would still have died.

Zahid Shakoor, who also was not wearing a seatbelt, was thrown 14 metres from the Golf and suffered a catalogue of injuries including a fractured skull, broken ribs, and a spinal injury, but has since made a good recovery.

Benjamin Lawrence, defending, said his client was ‘suffering from deep remorse’.

Sentencing, Judge Gee said the case ‘amply and tragically illustrates how catastrophic consequences can so quickly follow relatively low level negligence’.

He told Adriece: “You live daily with the knowledge of what you have done, which I’m certain is a real punishment for you and will be for very many years to come, if not for ever. You are a young man of previously impeccable character from a good family, spoken of highly by all who know you, and a fifth-year medical student hoping to pursue a career looking after others.

He added: “It’s difficult to see how your negligence on this single occasion in the circumstances can have a bearing itself upon your fitness to practise as a doctor but that will be for your professional body to decide."

In a tribute to Asam Zulqurnain, a former Hulme Grammar School pupil and Lancaster University graduate, his parents said their youngest son was a ‘good lad’ who would be ‘deeply missed’.