A DRIVER who was convicted of careless driving after he skipped a red light and hit a 17-year-old girl, causing her a brain injury which meant she had to learn to walk and talk again, has had his driving ban slashed on appeal.
Amin Aminullah, 41, was originally banned from driving for four years and ordered to pay a £1,400 fine at Croydon Magistrates' Court on July 15 last year after pleading guilty to driving without due care and attention
A district judge also ordered him to take an extended resit test once his ban expired.
He left promising Archibishop Tenisons student Miriam Parker, from Carshalton, with a serious brain injury after hitting her as she crossed Selsdon Park Road on New Years' Day 2014.
Witnesses said the traffic lights were red, though the court heard Aminullah was not speeding.
But, it emerged this week, Aminullah has since had his ban cut after a judge at Croydon Crown Court decided to allow his appeal.
It means Aminullah, of Addington Road, Selsdon, will be banned from driving for only two and a half years and will not have to retake his test to drive again. He will still have to pay the £1,400 fine. His appeal was heard on January 23.
Miriam's family were initially told by surgeons it was unlikely she would survive, but she learned to talk, walk and eat again. She was due to finally return home shortly after the Aminullah was originally sentenced last year
After that original sentencing, Miriam's mother Davina said her family planned to launch a campaign to change the law on careless driving.
They have called on the government to introduce a new criminal offence of causing serious injury by careless driving.
Her sisters Kirsty and Loren have started a petition for people to back their cause.
They wrote the following on their change.org page:
"Not only were we shocked that the driver had appealed against what we already thought was a lenient sentence but also we were shocked that we had not been notified that the appeal was happening and that it was in the end successful.
"Particularly disappointing was the removal of the extended resit. All acts of careless or dangerous driving causing injury should require a resit. Good drivers should have nothing to fear. "
To back their petition, which has so far attracted nearly 2,500 signatures, click here.
