Driver gets 16 years for killing pregnant Israeli and her father in UK hit-and-run

A man was jailed for 16 years by a British court on Friday for killing two Israelis — one of them pregnant — and injuring three others in a hit-and-run while under the influence of cocaine.

Nitesh Bissendary, 30, fled the scene after plowing into the Israeli family on August 11 in the southeastern seaside resort town of Ramsgate.

Noga Hirschfeld, 37, was killed along with her father Prof. Yoram Hirschfeld, 78, who was visiting from Israel.

Noga Hirschfeld was five weeks pregnant at the time of the crash.

Her 6-year-old daughter suffered serious injuries while her husband, Omer Sella, and 8-year-old son were lightly hurt.

She worked as a physicist in Cambridge and was also an active member of the community, volunteering as Girl Guides leader, the Cambridge Independent reported.

The family was standing outside a parking lot when they were struck by a black Alfa Romeo driven by Bissendary.

Bissendary mounted the curb and travelled nearly 30 meters before striking his victims, police said.

Jurors apparently gasped in horror when they watched CCTV footage of the crash.

Sella told the court that in the moments following the crash he felt “empty” after seeing his wife’s dress under the car, while their 8-year-old son asked him: “Is this real?”

Bissendary fled on foot from the scene, but prosecutors said he returned to retrieve cocaine from his vehicle as rescuers tried to free the woman trapped under the car.

Bissendary denied causing the deaths by dangerous driving, claiming he had been distracted by an issue with his vehicle’s clutch.

However the jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts after deliberating for just over four hours.

He was found guilty of two counts of causing death by dangerous driving and two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

Before the start of the trial, Bissendary admitted to the lesser charge of causing two deaths by careless driving, assault, failing to provide a test sample for analysis and possession with intent to supply cocaine.

“No words can describe the pain, loss and torment you have caused,” Judge Simon James told Bissendary.

“You were focused on self preservation and fled the scene. You went to your parents to try and hide the drugs you had been selling,” James said, according to the BBC.

“When you initially ran from the scene you knew full well you had run people over,” he said.

Detective Inspector Lynn Wilczek of Kent Police’s Serious Collision Investigation Unit told the Daily Mail that the driver’s actions were “disgraceful.”

“From the moment he took cocaine before getting behind the wheel of his car, the actions of Nitesh Bissendary have been nothing short of disgraceful,” Wilczek said.

“He has refused to take full responsibility for a tragic incident that was completely avoidable and entirely of his making, going so far as to run away whilst his victims lay injured and dying. Denying his actions were dangerous only caused more pain for the family as they were forced to relive the terrible events of that night during his trial.” she said.

Police said other people were also arrested over the incident: a 58-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman. The two are suspected of assisting the suspect and of possession with intent to supply class A drugs, which in the United Kingdom includes narcotics such as heroin, cocaine and hallucinogens like LSD, among others.