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Mother jailed over crash deaths

A mother who crammed seven boys into her car during a birthday outing before causing a pile-up in which four people died has been jailed for two years.

Nurse Angela Dublin, 46, of London Road, Headington, Oxford, pleaded guilty last month to four counts of causing death by dangerous driving.

Three of her seven passengers, Josh Bartlett, Liam Hastings, and Marshall Haynes, all 13, were killed last May.

Howard Hillsdon, 21, who was in another car, also died on Oxford's A4142.

Dublin, a nurse of 25 years, was disqualified from driving for six years.

She had been taking a party of her son Anton's friends out to dinner to celebrate his 13th birthday when the tragedy happened on 28 May.

Dublin was seen pulling into the fast lane, without indicating, as she approached a silver car in front at about 70mph.

It was then that Dublin lost control, the back of the car swerving first left and then right before ploughing across the grassed central reservation.

Mr Hillsdon, 21, of Oxford was killed when Dublin's car hit his vehicle and sent it into a spin.

As the two cars spun together each collided with another vehicle. A motorcyclist was also knocked off his bike in the chain of events.

Judge Mr Justice Crane said that although Dublin was driving within the limit, her speed in the circumstances was "excessive".

He said: "In my view, apart from taking the risk of multiple deaths and injuries, there were aggravating factors in driving when there were serious distractions and in driving at greatly excessive speed in those circumstances."

Dublin herself was left fighting for her life in hospital together with her son and his three surviving friends, Aiden Wood, 13, Jake Proper, 13, and Conor Hunt, 12.

On Monday, defence barrister Frank Burton told Oxford Crown Court "by her pleas of guilty to the four counts of causing death by dangerous driving, Mrs Dublin unequivocally accepts her responsibility for her fatal error.

"She wishes to apologise to the bereaved families and friends of Liam and Josh and Marshall and Howard Hillsdon.

"She knows that nothing that she can say and nothing that she can do will ease their pain, but she expresses her sincere condolences to the various families and friends for their losses.

"Like the bereaved, her thoughts over the last year have always been with the victims."

The court was told that only one of the boys in the car had been wearing a seat belt and at least one, possibly two, had been in the boot of the Citroen Xsara, when Dublin lost control of the car.

A witness recalled seeing children joking, laughing and making "childish gestures" through the back window before the accident.

Judge Crane said: "I have considered carefully whether I should reduce the sentence and whether, as I am asked to, I can suspend it.

"In my judgment it would not be appropriate to suspend the sentence."

Having 7 kids in the car might be stupid, but isn't likely to cause an accident.

Looks like a case of 'someone died - someone's got to pay'.

The court was told that only one of the boys in the car had been wearing a seat belt and at least one, possibly two, had been in the boot of the Citroen Xsara, when Dublin lost control of the car.

The thing is that she deliberately and without considering safety put more passengers into the car than it was designed to take, and they were not properly belted into the seats. The overloaded car, on which I seriously doubt that she had adjusted the tyre pressures for, was therefore an accident just waiting to happen.

She had already broken the law several times before letting the handbrake off, and this is one case where I think that the prosecution is fully justified.

This has apparently been used as an excuse to reduce the speed limit on the road in question from 70 mph to 50 mph

- even though a crash barrier has been installed.

The reason this prosecution is justified is that she was negligent as to her responsibilities - not careless. Negligence is an act of omission which has the same weight as a deliberately dangerous act. The fact she injured her own son and herself is irrelevant.

Wouldn't it be likely to upset the handling of the car if a less than skilled driver suddenly pulled out at 70 mph to overtake something?

So now all drivers have to suffer the consequences because one person illegally (and knowingly?) overloaded their car? (and likely drove in an aggressive manner)

As Dublin drove off from the lights, she was seen moving into the slow lane "suddenly and without indicating", then pulling back out into the fast lane as she approached a car in front at about 70mph.

She lost control, the back of the car swerving before ploughing across the central reservation into the path of a car driven by Howard Hillsdon, 21, from Oxford.

7 fat teenagers could weigh three quarters of a ton.

Seven teenagers at average 107kg? If they'd been that big, they just wouldn't have been able to fit in.