Driver downing vodka on his way home from airport after row with wife killed baby and aunt in horror incident

A drink-driver who a judge said played 'Russian roulette' with lives on a motorway at more than 140mph killed a baby and his aunt in a horror crash.

Darryl Anderson, 38, took a photograph of his speedometer showing 141mph moments before impact. A court heard he drank excessively on a plane back from a holiday and had been driving his Audi Q5 erratically from the airport. Anderson, who was almost three times over the drink-drive limit, has now 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.

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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.

Anderson, the court heard, had been driving his Audi Q5 erratically from Newcastle Airport having been drinking 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.

Anderson, said police, initially denied the offences, telling officers that he had picked up a hitchhiker outside the airport and had allowed him to drive his car. He claimed to have fallen asleep during the journey and only woke up at the point of the collision.

However, his story was disproved by investigators, and he pleaded guilty to both counts.

Zackary’s mum, Shalorna, bravely stood up in court today and recalled the moment her son was found by a lorry driver on the opposite side of the carriageway after his chair was flung from the car.

Addressing the judge, she said: "Your Honour, I stand before you today a broken shell of a woman and a childless mother. But this guilt is not mine to bear – this guilt is owed to the person that caused this infinite agony. I hope the pain of this weighs them down for all eternity."

Speaking after the sentencing, Detective Constable Natalie Horner, of Durham Constabulary’s Collision Investigation Unit, said: “As roads policing officers, we routinely ask people not to drive above the speed limit. We routinely ask people not to use their mobile phones while driving. And we routinely ask people not to get behind the wheel while intoxicated.

"Darryl Anderson was doing all three of those things when he collided with Shalorna Warner’s car, killing both passengers, Karlene and baby Zackary.

"For his actions, Anderson has been sentenced to more than 17 years in prison, but it is his victims and their family who have been handed life sentences. It is them who will spend the rest of their lives grieving the loss of their son, their grandchild, their wife, their sister, and their mother. And for what?"