A mother who killed two of her children when she crashed into a lorry while drink-driving has been jailed for more than four years. Mary McCann, 35, of Derby, admitted two counts of causing death by careless driving while under the influence of alcohol.
The crash happened on the M1 northbound near Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, on 9 August. Her daughter Lilly, aged four, and son Smaller, aged ten, were not wearing seatbelts and died at the scene, Aylesbury Crown Court heard.
McCann was driving at 72mph in a 60mph zone when her car drifted from lane one into lane two. In a bid to avoid an HGV, she crashed into it. Lilly was thrown from the car and found on the roadside, while Smaller was flung around the back seat and found slumped in the footwell.
A witness heard McCann shout: “God, why didn’t I put their seatbelts on?” The court was told she had complex post-traumatic stress disorder. Judge Francis Sheridan said the children would not have been ejected if they had been strapped in, adding: “The message must go out: don’t drive under the influence of alcohol.”
McCann was sentenced to four years and one month in prison and banned from driving for seven years and two weeks. She wept throughout the hearing, which she attended via video-link from HMP Bronzefield.
