A vodka-swilling driver who killed a baby boy and his aunt in a horror motorway crash was jailed for more than 17 years.
Darryl Anderson, 38, was over three times the drink drive limit and taking pictures of himself speeding at over 140mph when he crashed his high-powered Audi Q5 into the rear of a Peugeot on the A1(M) in County Durham.
Eight-month-old Zackary Blades was catapulted from the car to his death while fellow passenger Karlene Warner, 30, died instantly.
Zackery’s distraught mother Shalorna, who had been driving, clambered from the vehicle and desperately scoured the hard shoulder looking for her baby, who had been strapped in a babyseat.
Durham Crown Court heard Anderson had played “Russian roulette” with the lives of others and took a picture on his phone of his car’s dashboard seconds before the impact, while a red collision warning flashed.
But he was so drunk he did not see the vehicle in front.
The impact ripped off the back of her car and catapulted Zackary over 150ft across the A1M, between Chester-le-Street and Durham on May 31 last year. He was found by a lorry driver as frantic Shalorna waved down traffic, screaming “Zack, Zack”.
Anderson subsequently told police: “Everyone makes mistakes” as accident investigators found an empty bottle of vodka in his car.
Anderson, of Rotherham, admitted two counts of causing death by dangerous driving.
Judge Joanne Kidd, who also banned him from driving for 21 years, told him: “You played Russian roulette with the lives of every man, woman and child you passed.
“The level of your intoxication, your aggressive and entitled driving, your speed and use of your phone made it inevitable you’d come into collision with another road user.”
The family are now campaigning for mandatory lifelong driving bans for deaths caused by dangerous driving.
