Killed by 140mph maniac
Daily Mirror UK|July 10, 2024
Baby & aunt died in collision | Drink-driver jailed for 17yrs
JEREMY ARMSTRONG
Killed by 140mph maniac

A FRANTIC mum screamed "where's my baby?" after a drunk driver crashed into her car at 141mph on a motorway.

Little Zackary Blades was thrown 50 metres from the wreckage and killed, while his aunt Karlene Warner also died.

Darryl Anderson, 38, had been repeatedly making calls and sending texts at the time of the collision, and even took a photo of his dashboard which showed the car's speedometer at 141mph.

Yesterday, he was jailed for 17 years and three months and banned from driving for a further 21-and-a-half years after release.

Zackary's mum, Shalorna Warner, called for him to be banned from the road for life, saying: "No one should have to go through what we've gone through.

"Karlene and Zack's lives were more than that."

Shalorna picked up her sister Karlene, 30, from Newcastle Airport in her Peugeot 308 in the small hours of May 31. At the same time, Anderson was collecting his Audi Q5 from the airport, where staff said he smelled of alcohol.

He was seen driving erratically on the Felling Bypass in Gateshead before the collision on the A1(M) in Co Durham at 3.18am.

Anderson confessed initially but then tried to tell police he had picked up a hitchhiker, who he allowed to drive the vehicle.

Shalorna, 26, with Zack's dad Jack Blades by her side, bravely told Durham crown court how the force of the impact wiped out the back of her car and threw her baby son across the dual carriageway.

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