A PLASTERER abandoned his car in the fast lane of a motorway in darkness and it led to a Darwen woman sustaining horrific injuries.

Preston Crown Court was told that a series of accidents inevitably happened. Kathryn Gottweis, now 21, a passenger in a car, was propelled from the vehicle and is now a tetraplegic.

Ahmed Abbas, 37, of Gilbert Street, Peel Green, was jailed for two years for dangerous driving, attempting to pervert the course of justice, driving while unfit through drink or drugs and failing to report an accident. He was also disqualified from driving for seven years.

Mr Howard Bradshaw, prosecuting, told the court the accident took place in the early hours of October 24 1999, on the southbound carriageway of the M61 near Chorley.

Abbas had been driving at a dangerous speed over a number of miles, at times reaching 100mph. He had swerved from side to side and had two near misses with other vehicles.

He collided with the central reservation and left his car in darkness because the electrical system had failed. Abbas ran off and later claimed his car had been stolen. The car Kathryn was travelling in hit the abandoned car, which was then hit by a van, throwing her into the centre of the carriageway.

She suffered damage to her spinal cord, a broken right arm, six broken ribs and a punctured lung. She spent 15 months in the spinal unit of Southport General Hospital and has still not received a long-term prognosis.

She is currently living at Birch Hall Nursing Home, Darwen, waiting for part of her parents' house on Spring Meadow, Darwen, to be specially adapted.

Judge Peter Openshaw QC told Abbas: "It is impossible to imagine a worst case." He said it had been an "outrageous act of dangerous driving," and that if the law had allowed him, he would have passed a longer sentence.