Mother jailed for over 4 years over M1 crash killing own children
Mary McCann had already admitted causing the deaths of two of her children
Last updated 25th Apr 2022
A mother from Derby has been sentenced to 49 months in prison, over a crash on the M1 near Milton Keynes which killed two of her children.
Mary McCann had already pleaded guilty to causing their deaths by careless driving, while under the influence of drink, during a hearing at Aylesbury Crown Court in February.
In August last year, the 35-year-old, of Bamford Avenue, was driving on the Northbound side between junctions 14 and 15, when she collided with a white Scania HGV.
Her two children, Lilly McCann, aged four, and Smaller Peter McCann, aged ten, sustained fatal injuries and sadly died at the scene.
A third passenger, a two-year-old girl, was not seriously injured.
The driver of the lorry was left with whiplash.
McCann appeared at Aylesbury Crown Court via video-link from HMP Bronzefield and wept throughout the hearing.
Stephen Shay, prosecuting, said: "Ms McCann was driving three children in a Vauxhall Astra car when at 11.12pm she collided with the rear of a lorry driven by Simon Denton.
"Tragically, two of her children were killed."
McCann was in lane one, while the lorry was in lane two, the court was told.
Her car drifted into lane two and, in a bid to avoid the lorry, she crashed into it - sending her car spinning.
Mr Shay told the court McCann was driving at 72mph in a 60 zone, with Lilly and Smaller not wearing their seatbelts.
Lilly was thrown from the car and found on the roadside, while Smaller was flung around the backseat and found slumped in the footwell, the court heard.
A witness heard McCann shout: "God, why didn't I put their seatbelts on?" in the smash's immediate aftermath, Mr Shay said.
McCann was arrested last September after failing to answer bail following the youngsters' funerals, the court was told.
Laban Leake, defending, said: "She is here to be punished by this court and rightly so, but it must be acknowledged that the true punishment for this offence lives within Mary McCann.
"It is to that unquenchable wheel of fire that Mary McCann is bound."
He said his client has complex post-traumatic stress disorder.
Judge Francis Sheridan said Mr Denton did nothing wrong.
He said Lilly would "not have been ejected" if she had been strapped in, while "Smaller would have remained in his seat".
He said: "There is no punishment commensurate with the loss of one's two children and I accept that.
"The message must go out: don't drive under the influence of alcohol."
McCann, of Bamford Avenue, Derby, was jailed for 49 months and banned from driving for seven years and two weeks after admitting two counts of causing death by careless driving whilst under the influence of drink.