No-one was killed thanks to "sheer dumb luck" when a man suddenly pulled a handbrake while travelling down the A666 during a Boxing Day argument, a court has heard.
Ainsley Stafford, 27, had been on his way home to Bolton after Christmas Day in the early hours of December 26 last year when an argument erupted between himself and two other people in the car.
Bolton Crown Court heard how they had been travelling at just under 50mph at the time, while the woman he was travelling with had been driving.
Patrick Williamson, prosecuting, said: “She describes how the car spun out into the road and turned to face oncoming traffic.”
Stafford, of Alexander Road, Bolton, then turned to the back seat to attack the man there before trying to pull the woman who had been driving out by her hair, only to be stopped by her seat belt.
Later that same early Boxing Day morning, Stafford then pulled on the handbrake again and tried to drag the woman out of the car, hitting at spitting at her.
He then left the car and went up to a nearby taxi.
Mr Williamson said: “He is described as making racial comment about the driver or occupants.”
He added: “He then went back to the car screaming and shouting about being the biggest man in Bolton.”
Mr Williamson told the court how earlier that month Stafford had smashed the window of the woman’s car with a beer bottle on December 2 and had thrown a full can of lager at her on December 3.
Stafford, who has 10 previous convictions for 21 offences, was arrested on January 26 and answered no comment when questioned by police.
But he pleaded guilty to interfering with a motor vehicle, criminal damage, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and two counts of assault by beating.
Colin Buckle, defending, admitted that this was an “unpleasant, nasty incident” but argued that Stafford deserved credit for having pleaded guilty.
He also pointed out that his previous record did not point to a tendency towards violence despite the fact that he “persistently and consistently gets in vehicles and drives when he shouldn’t".
He said: “This wasn’t something which was planned or premeditated, this was the defendant losing control of himself.”
Mr Buckle added that Stafford, who appeared via video link from prison, had already been in custody for around two and a half months at a time when prisons conditions are “as bad as they have ever been".
He also told the court that the defendant was “deeply ashamed” of how he had behaved.
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But Recorder Michael Maher reminded the court of how Stafford’s actions could have had even more serious consequences.
Addressing the defendant, he said: “It is sheer dumb luck that you didn’t killed or seriously injure anyone else in that car or any other road users.”
He added: “It is plain to me that you have no regard for the safety of others either when you are driving or when you are a passenger.”
Recorder Maher sentenced Stafford to two years and 10 months in prison.
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