Drug Driving

[James]

A mother who was high on drugs when she killed her two young daughters and two teenagers in a head-on car crash has been jailed for nine years.
Kalli Goyette, four, and her sister Karis, eight, died when their mother Davina Smith from Tilbury, Essex, lost control of a stolen car in 2005.

Kezia Adger and Lee Gray, both 16, who were in the same car, also died.
Smith, 31, was convicted of four counts of causing death by careless driving at Snaresbrook Crown Court last December.
During the trial jurors heard how she had initially claimed Lee Gray was at the wheel of the stolen Ford Fiesta when it was involved in the crash in St Chad's Road, Tilbury.
Smith later accepted she had been driving. In court she exercised her right not to give evidence.

The Fiesta had been stolen in Westcliff-on-Sea the day before the accident.
The jury heard Smith had had a series of late nights prior to the crash and subsequent hospital tests found traces of amphetamines and cannabis in her body.
Martyn Levett, prosecuting, said the defendant's claims left officers facing an investigative "brick wall" and forced them to carry out a "painstaking" investigation in an attempt to find out what had happened.

Police discovered the Fiesta had been travelling between 40mph and 50mph when the accident happened.

'Sadly missed'

Following the sentencing Ch Insp Tom Diment said: "Essex Police offer their deepest sympathies to all the families who have been bereaved by this sad and tragic incident.
"Lee, Kezia, Karis and Kalli are undoubtedly sadly missed by their families and loved ones. I hope today's verdicts will bring some closure for the families.
"Davina Smith unlawfully took four young lives, including those of her own children, by her criminal driving actions.
"Her situation must be a lesson to any other person who drives a motor vehicle, stolen or otherwise, whilst under the influence of intoxicants."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/6323199.stm

[Gareth]

I dunno about this but it seems to me the focus of this story is misdirected.

A mother who was high on drugs when she killed her two young daughters and two teenagers in a head-on car crash has been jailed for nine years.

The jury heard Smith had had a series of late nights prior to the crash and subsequent hospital tests found traces of amphetamines and cannabis in her body.

Someone was overly tired, using drugs, driving stolen a car and was a really crap driver.

Perhaps she was driving it like she stole it, and ran out of skill.

The use of drugs seems like it may have been contributory, but the others aspects also seem to have been contributory, especially the tiredness.

[7db]

Judge's summaries are usually excellent, and that one is no different. It is clearly horrible horrible consequence for a short but inevitable incident.

One thing that jumps out for us here:-

Even now, I have read in the pre-sentence report you continue to deny that your use of amphetamine would have affected your driving that night and insist that you were a good driver, and that the collision occurred without any error on your part.

Once again proving that no matter what standard ones driving, the delusion that you are the World's Greatest Driver is a seductive and powerful one.

[Gareth]

Perhaps if you read the Judge's sentencing comments, all will become clear.

I thought I had edited my message to include a link to a report in the Scotsman which included a much better description than that of the BBC report.

Although it seems clear that drugs were contributory in this case, I find it worrying that tiredness in drivers isn't considered to be a big problem.

I know, for instance, that tiredness can cause drivers to react in the way described in this case, but I don't know whether the same can be layed at the door of amphetamines, although the judge says it was the case:

the amphetamine you had ingested caused you to re-act in a grossly negligent way to your wholly belated awareness of the presence of other cars

From the description of what happened -- the driver was unaware of slow moving traffic ahead until too late, then swerved to avoid -- this could easily be caused by over-tiredness, but maybe the use of amphetamines interrupted a normal sleep pattern and contributed in that way.

Having said all that, it also appears that the driver in this case wasn't socially minded and was way short on responsibility towards others, in many ways.