A 35-year-old hairdresser from Birkenhead was convicted after driving her Mercedes through a red light and colliding with a marked police car, which then caught fire. The case matters because it highlights the risks of dangerous driving at junctions, especially when emergency vehicles are involved, and because the crash left police officers needing to escape from a burning vehicle.

The collision happened on August 30 last year at the junction of Hoylake Road and Market Street in Birkenhead, where CCTV showed the woman driving into the path of the police car. The police vehicle burst into flames after the impact, though the officers managed to get out and were not seriously injured. She denied wrongdoing, but a jury at Liverpool Crown Court found her guilty of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, and she is due to be sentenced later.