Dad-to-be left eight-year-old a "nervous wreck" after crashing into her mum's car before fleeing scene

A dad-to-be with a provisional driving licence fled the scene having left an eight-year-old girl injured after smashing into her mum's car. A court heard how Aiden Dodd, from Leigh, performed a "highly dangerous manoeuvre" before hitting a Renault Clio head on.

The 23-year-old had been attempting to overtake other vehicles on a blind bend on a country lane while behind the wheel of a black Volkswagen Golf. The crash left the young girl needing to spend the night in hospital, while she has since been a "nervous wreck" when travelling by car.

Dodd sat with his head bowed in the dock as a video of the incident was played to the court, the Liverpool Echo reports. Liverpool Crown Court heard today (August 1) that Hayley Hughes had been driving her Clio along Holcroft Lane in Culcheth, Warrington, at around 4pm on April 1 this year.

Try MEN Premium for FREE by clicking here for no ads, fun puzzles and brilliant new features

Derek Jones, prosecuting, described how her daughter and two-year-old son, who was asleep in the rear, were inside the vehicle when it approached a blind bend on the 50mph "country road". At this moment the family car was struck by Dodd's oncoming Golf, which had veered into its lane.

Dashcam footage from a third vehicle showed that the 23-year-old had overtaken one car and was in the process of overtaking another at the time of the crash, ignoring a solid white line in the middle of the carriageway in order to do so. Ms Hughes was instinctively able to "break heavily and steer towards a verge" on her left-hand side, resulting in only a "glancing" blow, but her car was ultimately written off by the smash.

Dodd's vehicle meanwhile continued onwards before colliding with a telegraph pole, which was