Drink-driver jailed for causing deaths of baby and aunt in 141mph crash

Darryl Anderson, 38, took a photograph on his phone showing the speedometer of his car moments before the collision.

Zackary Blades was killed instantly in the collision on the A1 between Chester-le-Street and Durham in May (Durham Police/PA) (PA Media)

A driver who was almost three times over the limit and who took a photo of his speedometer showing 141mph moments before he crashed into a car killing a baby and his aunt has been jailed for more than 17 years.

Mother Sharlona Warner tearfully described frantically searching for her eight-month-old son Zackary Blades who was thrown from her Peugeot 308, out of his car seat, and into the opposite carriageway of the A1 motorway in the early hours of May 31, between Chester-le-Street and Durham.

Her sister Karlene was thrown from the backseat into the front airbags and both she and her nephew were killed instantly, Durham Crown Court heard.

Darryl Anderson, 38, had been driving his Audi Q5 erratically from Newcastle Airport having drunk excessively on the plane back from a shortened holiday, after falling out with his wife.

By coincidence, Sharlona Warner had been to pick up her 30-year-old sister, a flight attendant, from the same airport.

Anderson, of Clarell Walk, Thorpe Hesley, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, admitted two counts of causing death by dangerous driving at a hearing last week.

Judge Joanne Kidd jailed him for 17 years and three months and banned him from driving for a further 21-and-a-half years when he is released.

Around 50 friends and family members of the two victims were in court for the sentencing.

Judge Kidd told Anderson he had been playing “Russian roulette” with the lives of other drivers that night and a fatal crash was inevitable.

Anderson was breathalysed at the scene and police recorded a 95mg of alcohol per 100ml of breath when the legal limit is 35mg.

Police found an empty vodka bottle in the wreckage of his car.

He had been using WhatsApp while he drove and took a photograph on his phone in which Ms Warner’s Peugeot could be seen, showing the speedometer at 141mph, moments before the crash.

Analysis of the Audi’s computer showed he had the accelerator fully depressed, did not brake before impact, and that a collision warning light was illuminated on the dashboard.