A “control freak with a wild temper” who caused a fatal crash by pulling the handbrake while on the motorway has been jailed for more than seven years.
Gary Toomey, 37, and his ex-partner Victoria Bell, 34, were arguing as they returned from a festival late at night on September 24, 2021.
Despite the car traveling at 70mph along the M62 near Liverpool, Toomey, who was in the passenger seat, grabbed the handbrake and pulled it up, causing the car to spin out of control and crash into the center reserve.
Mrs. Bell managed to free herself from the wreckage, but was struck and killed by another vehicle.
Toomey, of Hollin Hey Road in Bolton, later told police “a feeling came over him”.
He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and on Thursday was sentenced to prison for seven years and four months at Liverpool Crown Court.
The couple lived together at Mrs Bell’s home in Huddersfield before the relationship ended.
However, they still saw each other occasionally and on the night of the fatal accident they were returning from a festival in Liverpool.
Toomey, an HGV driver, told officers that Mrs Bell said she didn’t want to see him again and that he started shouting at her, before pulling the handbrake.
O Crown Prosecution Service said Toomey pulled the brakes “out of temper,” with “tragic ramifications.”
Investigators found the oncoming vehicle did not have time to react to avoid Ms Bell, with poor lighting in the vicinity of Clock Face Colliery Country Park making it “very difficult to see until the last moment”.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Ms Bell’s mother said: “Your actions have ruined my life forever.”
She described him as a “control freak with a wild temper.”
Toomey was also disqualified from driving.
Det Sgt Kurt Timpson, lead investigating officer of Merseyside Police The Serious Collision Investigation Unit said: “Toomey destroyed a close family relationship by his shocking behavior that night.
“Anyone traveling at high speed in a moving vehicle on a motorway would instinctively know that pulling the handbrake would be very likely to cause very serious injury, or death, to themselves and other road users. It’s just unbelievable.”
He added: “Merseyside Police will not tolerate any form of domestic violence or controlling and coercive behavior.
“We will deal robustly with each report and work with partner agencies to prevent and reduce this type of crime.”
