Brothers were racing before fatal collision, jury told

A jury has heard two brothers were allegedly racing each other moments before a crash that killed a father-of-two and seriously injured his nine-year-old son.

Rhys Jenkins, from Deuddwr, Powys, died at the scene of the crash on the A483 near Welshpool in November 2024. His son, Ioan, was airlifted to hospital in Liverpool with serious injuries.

Abubakr Ben Yusuf, 31, and Umar Ben Yusuf, 35, deny causing death by dangerous driving.

Opening the case at Mold Crown Court, prosecutor David Mainstone told jurors the pair were "a car crash waiting to happen" and had been "racing" each other in the miles leading up to the fatal collision.

He said that during the trial, the jury would hear from 10 eyewitnesses who all saw the brothers driving before the crash, and who sometimes saw the BMW leading, and sometimes the Audi.

Others would describe seeing the collision itself, he said, when Jenkins' Toyota Yaris was hit head-on by the red BMW being driven by Abubakr Ben Yousef after his car appeared to lose control and crossed over into the right hand lane.

He showed the jury footage of the two cars overtaking a woman at speed, and another video showing the journey in daylight between Newtown where the brothers' cars were first witnessed, to the crash site near Welshpool.

Ryan Jones, a transit van driver, told the court he was driving at about 50 to 60mph when he noticed headlights up close behind him in his wing mirrors.

"There were no vehicles, to then very quickly lights approaching," he said, describing how the headlights came "aggressively" and "close".

Jones said the car flashed its lights as if wanting him to speed up or move. It then pulled out and back in again due to oncoming traffic.

He went on to describe how the car, which he saw was a red BMW X3, then overtook him on a bend.

He said: "I wasn't very impressed. It was unbelievably reckless and dangerous …the speed they were travelling, the blind corner, the time of day. Everything about it."

Jones said in the time it took for the BMW to overtake, he was then aware of a blue Audi A4 alongside, also overtaking him.

He guessed the cars had been travelling between 80 and 100mph.

Jones then described how he saw the BMW in front of the Audi begin to "fishtail" and "slide".

"I don't know if it caught a puddle or dirt... the car was trying to slide side to side, it caught the ditch... the car bolted across the road and hit the oncoming vehicle."

He said he saw a "flash of flame" under the bonnet of Rhys Jenkins' Toyota, which then spun, ending up facing back the way it had come. The BMW "bounced to a stop" and the Audi pulled up about 10m (33ft) from the crash site, he said.

Jones said he phoned 999 and ran to the Toyota. Someone else was already there, and between them they got the door open and took a young boy, unconscious, out of the car.

He saw someone check the driver and heard them say there was no pulse.

Mainstone asked Jones if he was surprised by what had happened.

"After seeing the manner of driving, it was inevitable," he said, "you can't be driving like that on those roads."

Mainstone said the trial would also hear from a collision investigator who would say the road surface at the location was dry and in a good state of repair at the time of the crash.

Another investigator would tell the trial that his calculations show Abubakr Ben Yousef had been driving faster than 63mph at the time of the impact.

Mainstone told the jury that Jenkins "couldn't avoid the collision" and "paid a terrible price" for the way the brothers had driven that evening, "with no consideration for other road users", and that Abubakr Ben Yousef had not been insured.

The trail continues.