A drunk driver said “mistakes happen sometimes” after crashing into another vehicle at 141mph, instantly killing a baby and her aunt, a court has been told.
Darryl Anderson sent Zackary Blades flying out of his child seat when he crashed into his mother’s car on the A1(M) motorway. The baby landed on the hard shoulder of the oncoming carriageway.
The baby’s distraught mother, Shalorna Warner, was left frantically searching through the wreckage of the motorway shouting “Zack, Zack” in a bid to find her eight-month-old son after the crash at 3.15am on May 31.
Zackary’s body was eventually found by a lorry driver, while the baby’s aunt, Karlene Warner, 30, lay dead in the passenger seat of Shalorna’s half-crushed Peugeot 308.
A judge said Anderson, 38, had played a “Russian” “roulette” with the lives of other road users when he was jailed for 17 years at Durham Crown Court on Tuesday.
Computer analysis of Anderson’s Audi Q5, from which an empty vodka bottle was recovered, showed his accelerator was fully depressed at the time of impact.
After being arrested following the crash between Chester-le-Street and Durham, Anderson lied to police, claiming he had picked up a hitchhiker who was driving.
Zackary Blades died instantly after being thrown 50 metres across the highway.
Pennsylvania
Police cameras captured him saying: “I rear-ended a car. Sometimes mistakes are made, but I am not a bad person.” He later joked with nurses at a hospital.
The two vehicles had left Newcastle International Airport. Shalorna had picked up Karlene, a flight attendant, after a holiday, with Zackary safely strapped into her back seat.
Anderson, from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, was returning from a holiday in Antalya, Turkey, where his wife had come home early upset by his behaviour.
After drinking heavily on the flight, he picked up his car keys in the car park and told her: “I’m going to Bradford to find a new wife.”
Karlene Warner, a flight attendant, was returning from an overseas holiday when she died on the A1(M).
FAMILY/PA BROCHURE
In the days leading up to the crash, Anderson sent WhatsApp messages and was seen driving erratically. Seconds before the impact, he took a photo with his mobile phone of the speedometer to show his speed. The Peugeot could be seen in the image, as well as a collision warning light on his dashboard, but he was too drunk to notice.
The impact was so strong that it ripped off the rear end of the other car and threw Zackary 50 metres from the vehicle. He and his aunt died instantly.
Anderson was given a breathalyzer test after the crash and was found to have almost three times the legal blood alcohol level, said Emma Dowling, prosecuting.
Shalorna tearfully read out a victim impact statement in court, describing how Anderson had failed to come to her aid in the frantic moments after the crash.
Police body camera footage showed Anderson being given a roadside breathalyzer test, which he failed.
DURHAM POLICE/PA
She told the court how she saw Karlene clearly badly injured with the passenger airbag inflating, saying “I’ll be back for you” as she ran to find Zack.
“I couldn’t see my baby, I was standing in the rubble, picking up pieces of the wrecked car and throwing them away, trying to find him, but he wasn’t there,” she said. “I was screaming his name and I called 999.
“I saw the other driver and I ran up to him and said, ‘Help, I can’t find my baby. ’ I screamed, ‘Zack, Zack. ’ He didn’t help me, he never helped me.”
Shalorna found her son’s baby seat, but when she turned around she discovered it wasn’t there. That’s when she heard a truck driver who had stopped to help on the other side of the road shout: “He’s here, your baby’s here.”
She said: “I knew instantly. I had to pick up my dead baby from the roadside. I hugged him so tightly, a hug I will never forget.”
Addressing Anderson briefly, who refused to raise his head to look her in the eye, she said: “You have left behind a broken shell of a woman and a childless mother.”
She added: “Zackary was my rainbow baby. He was the light at the end of the tunnel in a very dark time for me and brought joy, happiness and laughter into my life.
“My baby’s future, my future, our life together has been stolen from me. And to my sister Karlene, I have no words. I am so sorry this happened to you. It’s hard to process something that doesn’t feel real; I feel like I’m living a nightmare.
“I will feel the consequences of this pain for the rest of my life. I don’t know if I will be able to overcome it. I am scarred, traumatized, and afraid to live my life.”
Shalorna Warner, right, mother of eight-month-old Zackary Blades, speaking to the media after Anderson was jailed.
OWEN HUMPHREYS/Attorney
Shalorna told the court that Anderson should face a life sentence. She said: “This guilt is not mine. This guilt is for the person who caused this endless agony. I hope the pain of this overwhelms them for all eternity.
“Nothing will bring my son and sister back to me. The only way out for me is for the defendant to face the same sentence as me: life imprisonment. The irony of all this is that I will never see my loved ones again, but he will.”
Karlene’s father, Nigel Warner, said Anderson had turned his car into a “killing machine”. Kieran Hutchinson, Karlene’s partner, repeatedly demanded that Anderson look up and face him while he made his statement, but the driver continued to look straight ahead.
He said he would be forced to explain to his daughter, Karlene’s only child, how much her mother loved her. “I will pick up the pieces of her broken heart wherever I go,” he told the court.
Zackary and his parents Jack Blades and Shalorna Warner
Richard Dawson, toning down his apology, said of Anderson: “He is deeply remorseful and, through me, would like to apologise to all those involved.”
Anderson pleaded guilty to two counts of causing death by dangerous driving at a hearing last week. Judge Joanne Kidd sentenced Anderson to 17 years and three months in prison and banned him from driving for a further 21 years and six months after his release.
“You played Russian roulette with the lives of every man, woman and child you passed on that journey,” he said. “The level of your intoxication, your aggressive and pretentious driving, your speed and your use of your phone made it inevitable that you would collide with another road user.
“At 140 miles per hour, with your foot fully pressed on the accelerator, you were inevitably going to cause serious injury and the likelihood of a fatality.”
