A mother has spoken of her devastation after her seven-year-old daughter was killed by a delivery driver who performed a dangerous overtaking manoeuvre on a Lincolnshire road. Elsie Gascoigne died the day after the crash on the B1202 on 3 January, when Veselin Dudenski, 39, pulled out to overtake in a hidden dip, causing a head-on collision.
In a victim impact statement read to Lincoln Crown Court, Elsie's mother said: 'That day destroyed our lives and everything we were as a family.' She described Elsie as a little girl who 'loved animals, especially horses and dreamed of owning her own white horse', adding: 'We will never recover from this. Our daughter was seven years old, full of love, light and laughter, and she is gone forever.'
The court heard that Dudenski had already overtaken a Ford Ranger safely earlier, but his second attempt was described as 'silly' by the Ford driver. A witness who saw Elsie in the back of the Kia confronted Dudenski afterwards, telling him 'you killed a kid.' Prosecutor Claire Holmes said road signs and markings clearly warned of the dip, and that Dudenski either paid insufficient attention or ignored them.
Elsie's father, who was driving the family car, tried to swerve but could not avoid the impact. He suffered a permanent elbow disability and now experiences nightmares and flashbacks. Dudenski, a sub-contracted delivery driver from Branston, admitted causing death by dangerous driving. His barrister said he had been a professional driver for 17 years without endorsements and has a young son.
Judge Sjolin Knight accepted that Dudenski was unaware of the dip, meaning his offence did not fall into the highest sentencing category, but said his driving showed a 'lack of patience'. She sentenced him to six years in prison for causing death by dangerous driving, with a concurrent 22-month sentence for causing serious injury to Mr Gascoigne. He was also banned from driving for eight years and must take an automatic retest. The court heard Dudenski has permanent settled status in the UK but is now liable for automatic deportation.
