Teenager with 'heart of gold' unlawfully killed in crash

A MUCH-LOVED teenager who died in hospital six days after suffering 'unsurvivable' injuries in a 'high-velocity' car crash was unlawfully killed, a coroner has concluded.

- PAUL BRITTON

Driver Elliot Martin, now 22, was jailed for six years in October, 2022, for causing the death of 17-year-old Ronaldo Johnson by dangerous driving. An inquest heard Martin led a police officer on a chase lasting 40 seconds before a Ford Focus he was driving jumped a second red light and hit a taxi at speed.

Two others, a woman in the taxi and a young man also in the car with Ronaldo, were left badly injured in the crash, which happened at the junction of Yew Tree Road and Mauldeth Road West, near Withington, in the early hours of March 31, 2021.

Ronaldo a talented gymnast, footballer and kickboxer from Chorlton was a rear-seat passenger. He was taken to Salford Royal Hospital, but sadly passed away despite the best efforts of medics on April 6 that year. The inquest heard he wasn't wearing a seatbelt.

Pc Stuart Oram, a Greater Manchester Police dog handler with 21 years' experience at the time, was on patrol in a liveried Skoda with two police dogs in the back. He said he saw the Focus travel onto Wilmslow Road from Palatine Road through a red light at gone 3.30am