A drunken driver who snapped a photo showing he was speeding at 141 mph before a deadly crash in England has been sentenced to 17 years in prison

Darryl Anderson was drunk behind the wheel of his Audi SUV, had his accelerator pressed to the floor and was barreling toward a car ahead of him when he snapped a photo of his speedometer. The picture showed a car in the foreground, a collision warning light on his dashboard and a speed of 141 mph (227 kph).

An instant later, he slammed into the car in the photo. The driver, Shalorna Warner, was not seriously injured but her 8-month-old son and her sister were killed instantly, authorities said. Evidence showed Anderson never braked.

Anderson, 38, was sentenced Tuesday to 17 years in prison for the May 31 crash in northern England that killed little Zackary Blades and Karlene Warner. Anderson pleaded guilty last week in Durham Crown Court to two counts of causing death by dangerous driving.

  • sun_is_raEnglish
    519·
    4 months ago

    But take into account that the woman was also driving at certain speed when he hit her. If she was driving at 100MPH then his speed relative to her was just 41MPH

      • OneOrTheOtherDontAskMe@lemmy.worldEnglish
        13·
        4 months ago

        I think his math is bad because he just went with a cool round number.

        But, more realistically, she was probably going somewhere between 55-70 mph (don’t know road or highway or whatever) and that’s still a difference of 70-90 miles an hour. So I’d say yeah, the seat check MIGHT prevent harm if you’re super duper lucky but I don’t think that baby’s walking away from that with anything less than life threatening injuries

        • sun_is_raEnglish
          31·
          4 months ago

          miles is not a unit I am familiar with. I certainly wasn’t suggesting the woman was speeding or slowing down just that her speed (whatever it was) should be taken in consideration when estimating the severity of impact.

          Of course this is all theoretical since we do know for a fact that two people were killed

    • rmuk@feddit.ukEnglish
      4·
      4 months ago

      Right, but they’re not particles travelling through a vacuum. Even a tiny contact at highway speeds is enough to send one or both cars rolling.