BBC Crash Detectives looks at Lucas children tragedy on M4
The hardest story is often left to last and in the final in the latest series of Crash Detectives[1], crash site detective Dean Burnett investigated the tragedy that occurred on the M4 when Martin Newman’s white van went into the back of a mother and two children parked on the hard shoulder. Unprecedented and often upsetting footage shows the ferocity of the impact as Newman, who was found to be high on drink and drugs[2], ploughed into the back of Rhiannon Lucas’ car with her two children, three-year-old Jayden-Lee and four-year-old Gracie-Ann Lucas, in the back. The two children, from Tredegar, later died in hospital.
Three-year-old Jayden-Lee and four-year-old Gracie-Ann Lucas died in the crash (Image: Gwent Police)
Martin Newman was high on drink and drugs when he crashed into the family (Image: Gwent Police)Series four of episode four of Crash Detectives began with a bird’s eye view of a huge tailback on the M4, around junction 28. Detective Burnett is filmed racing[3] to the scene of the collision and by the sheer amount of emergency personnel involved and the nature of the calls, he knows it’s a bad one.
When Detective Burnett gets to the scene there’s pandemonium as a white transit van and red Ford Fiesta are crushed and facing the wrong way on the motorway. Upsetting scenes show Jayden-Lee and Grace-Ann’s car seats – one of the seats has a clean break through the belt as the children had to be cut out the vehicle. Crash Detective Dean Burnett is back on the scene (Image: BBC)
The ferocity of the crash is shown in upsetting scenes (Image: BBC) Painter and decorator Newman, who had been drinking heavily the night before the incident and taken cocaine, was seen stumbling through his police interview not remembering what speed he was going or even which route he’d taken as he travelled from Leicester back to South Wales. The inside of his van was a wreck with litter and filth in the footwells amongst an empty bottle of vodka.
In one of the cup holders was a bottle of wine. Extraordinarily, Detective Burnett told how Newman had admitted taking a swig from the wine while driving because his mouth was dry. Crash Detective Dean Burnett expects the kids’ car seat (Image: BBC)
They had to be cut out the car (Image: BBC)
Painter and decorator Newman couldn’t even remember the route he’d taken driving home from Leicester (Image: BBC) CCTV footage showed the erratic and often shocking driving of Newman on the M4 swaying in and out of lanes and coming dangerously close to crashing into other cars.
Detective Burnett said of the incident: “Every collision that we deal with is emotive. Everyone has a personal story. It just seems to make it worse when there are children involved.”
Newman was jailed for nine years and four months – the longest sentence the judge could pass – for causing multiple deaths by dangerous driving.
Crash Detectives is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
References
- ^ Crash Detectives (www.southwalesargus.co.uk)
- ^ Newman, who was found to be high on drink and drugs (www.southwalesargus.co.uk)
- ^ racing (www.southwalesargus.co.uk)