Pedestrian left with ‘catastrophic injuries’ after being hit by motorcyclist

On January 18, 2019, Nathan Potter, 23, of Greenways, Carleton Rode, was driving down Victoria Road in Diss, when he was seen weaving through rush hour traffic.

Potter then attempted to overtake the slow moving traffic, when he lost control of his motorcycle and hit Mohammed Miah, who was waiting to cross the road.

As a result of the impact, Mr Miah suffered fractures to his spine, a broken left arm, nerve damage, seven broken and five fractured ribs, cuts to his head, a lump in his left eye affecting his vision and punctured lungs which had to be operated on at the roadside before he could be airlifted to hospital.

Potter pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

During a Norwich Crown Court sentencing hearing on Friday May 29, Joseph Bird, prosecuting, read two victim statements from Mr Miah, one taken in February 2019 and a second taken in March 2020.

Mr Miah said his whole family had been affected by the event both financially and emotionally.

He said he had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder following the incident.

Speaking in March, he said: “I had to pull myself out of a very dark place because of the accident, I felt most days that I wished I wasn’t alive. This was the most difficult thing I have had to go through.”

Sentencing Potter, Judge Andrew Shaw said he had taken into account the “catastrophic injuries suffered by Mr Miah and the overwhelming impact the [incident] had had on his life”.

He said he did not doubt that Potter had been greatly affected by the incident but that it seemed to him that his driving was “dangerous for some considerable time before the impact”.

He said: “When the road is wet and traffic is moving slowly, it’s dangerous to weave in and out of traffic, it’s dangerous to overtake and particularly at the speed at which you were driving.”

Potter was sentenced to 12 months in prison and disqualified from driving from two years and six months.