A mother killed her 14-year-old daughter and another teenage girl
when she crashed at 70mph after taking cannabis, a trial heard
yesterday.
Anastasia James’s Vauxhall Astra veered off the M1 and hit a tree as
she drove home to Leicester from her nephew’s birthday party in London.
The 37-year-old told police she never drove while high and had not smoked cannabis ‘for ages’.
But an officer smelled the drug at the crash scene and tests revealed
it was in her system. ‘She chose to take cannabis, either shortly
before leaving or during the journey,’ prosecutor Michael Evans QC told
the jury.
‘She did not want this to happen and you will have sympathy for her.
But she had the care of children and to make the choice she did is
simply unforgivable.’
James had son Wade Keeling, 18, beside her as she drove on January 4, 2014, Leicester crown court heard.
Her daughter Destiny James-Keeling and Wade’s girlfriend Megan Marchant, 18, were in the back.
Conditions were good and there were no faults with the Vauxhall Astra car, Mr Evans said.
He said James swerved towards the central reservation and veered back across all three lanes before hitting the tree.
Destiny and Megan died of multiple injuries ‘within minutes’ of the
crash at about 7.15pm near junction 19 of the motorway in
Leicestershire.
A sample taken six hours later revealed James had 2.4 nanograms of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis, per ml of blood.
She denies causing death by careless driving when unfit through drugs. The trial continues.
No comments:
Post a Comment