Speeding motorcyclist who used the M62 as a 'race track' killed friend with dangerous manoeuvre then left him to die

A motorcyclist captured on CCTV racing his friend has been jailed for a 'shocking' manoeuvre which killed his pal during lockdown. Cambell Kennedy, then 23, and his friend Kyle Hempenstall, 28, had been using the roads like 'their own private race track' as they rode their powerful Yamaha R1 machines, a court was told.

Kennedy, who had earlier pulled a wheelie and given another driver the 'w***er hand gesture', led his friend between a Transit van and an HGV on the M62 when he suddenly hit the brakes and beckoned Kyle to follow, prompting the van to brake sharply and swerve towards the lorry.

Kyle's handlebar clipped the van as the gap narrowed. He lost control and his bike smashed into a highways maintenance digger. The father of one, who worked as a joiner, died of catastrophic injuries at the scene. Kennedy continued to speed away, turned around at the next junction and passed the scene of the crash he had just caused as he fled back to his home in Stockport.

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The crash happened between junctions 12 for Eccles and 11 for Birchwood as the pair sped away from Manchester at 1pm on Wednesday May 27, 2020, when traffic was 'light' due to the national lockdown in place at the time, prosecutor Rob Hall told Manchester Crown Court.

At the time of the crash, Kennedy was uninsured, only had a provisional licence, had not taken the required 'compulsory basic training' test to ride a motorbike and only five months earlier had been fined and handed six penalty points for failing to provide his details for another traffic offence, the prosecutor told the court.

Kyle had passed his driving test when he was 20 and at 25 he passed a test allowing