Forensic team uncovers what happened in crash where drink driver killed two children

30/10/2023

The latest episode of BBC’s The Crash Detectives provides an insight into how a forensic team uncovered what happened in a crash that claimed the lives of four-year-old Gracie-Ann Lucas and three-year-old Jayden-Lee Lucas. The two children were in a car with their mother Rhiannon Lucas and her partner when their car was hit by the van on the M4 [1] in Newport in February 2022. Tragically both siblings, also known by the surname Wheaton, died within days of each other while Rhiannon sustained serious injuries.

The family had pulled over onto the hard shoulder on the M4 motorway in Newport when they were struck by van driver Martin Newman [2], aged 41, who was twice over the drink driving limit and had cocaine in his system after partying the night before. LATEST: Mum whose two children were killed by drink driver gives birth to surprise baby [4] The crash happened on the westbound carriageway between junctions 28 and 29 in Newport [5].

Gracie-Ann died the following day and Jayden-Lee the next week from catastrophic injuries. In the final episode of the recent series of The Crash Detectives [6], which was aired on Monday evening (October 30), the programme showed how an expert team from Gwent Police’s collision investigation unit carried out their essential work of piecing together how the event unfolded. “From the nature of the calls that were coming in, it was quite obvious from the start it was going to be a major incident,” Dean Burnett, the forensic collision investigator of Gwent Police [7] said. “You automatically go into work mode.

We were under no illusion at all as to the scale of the incident that we were going to be facing.” He later added: “Looking at the vehicles involved, you could see there was a huge impact. It had crushed almost a third of the length of the vehicle.”

Dean Burnett, the forensic collision investigator of Gwent Police, and his team carried out the essential work of piecing together how the event unfolded (Image: BBC Wales)

Initially, it was unclear where the car was positioned at the time of the crash.

But information from witnesses confirmed that the car was stationary on the hard shoulder, and that the white van had “veered across two lanes” before crashing into the car, officers informed Burnett. During his investigation for forensic evidence, Dean tried to navigate the precise point where the vehicle was hit. Closer examination of the marks, scrapes and gauges revealed how the collision unfolded, as well as where the family car was parked at the time of the crash.

“The area of impact is here, rather than a precise point,” Dean pointed. “It shunted the Fiesta along the hard shoulder. At that point the wheels were locked and damaged, which has caused the marks – the tell-tale marks.” He later added: “It’s gone along the crash barrier before it comes back out to its post-impact position, and the van in the meantime has come and spun around as well, with its back obviously in the opposite direction.

That has left a trail of oil and gauges as well.” Almost four hours after the collision, Dean was still at the scene, while the two children were in critical condition. “We were hearing updates from the hospital,” Dean said. “It didn’t sound good. The two children were both critical.

The information we had was potentially they weren’t going to survive, and that the children’s mother was seriously injured as well. “I think it was in the early hours of the following morning we found out that the little girl had died from the injuries that she had received in the collision. And the little boy was holding on, but it wasn’t looking too good for him either.”

Over 24 hours after the crash, the programme showed how Martin Newman, who was driving the Transit van, had spent the night in custody. Footage showed he told the police that he was “just driving home”.

The crash happened on the westbound carriageway between junctions 28 and 29 in Newport

When asked which lane he was in, he replied: “I think I crossed over to, like, the left lane and I must have headed over too far.” When asked what speed he was going, he replied: “I don’t know what speed I was going, I’m sorry.” With the van driver recalling very little detail about the crash, Dean and his co-worker PC Richie Wyatt continued to investigate the vehicles themselves.

There was a “distinctive shape of damage” to the front of the van, Dean explained, and a “similar shape” to the rear of the Fiesta. As a result, Dean and his team went to work to see if the two vehicles matched like a “jigsaw piece”. “It’s not going to be a perfect fit,” Dean explained. “But we’re trying to line them up to give us an indication on the shape of the vehicle at the point of impact.” The team’s work concluded that the vehicles did match up.

When asked if he had seen the car on the hard shoulder, Newman told police: “I can’t honestly remember seeing the car. Honestly, it just happened so fast. I just heard a bang and I went against the steering wheel.”

The car had stopped on the hard shoulder as the four-year-old girl had said she felt unwell. Dean and his team’s reconstruction work showed the moment the van made contact with the rear of the Fiesta. Dean said: “As you can see the intrusion is huge, it’s significant.

You’re probably looking in excess of two feet.” He later added: “Unfortunately and tragically, the people that are sat in the back of the car, particularly the children, didn’t stand a chance in this, really. It’s a very graphic representation of what happened in those split seconds.

It really is quite upsetting.” Just a few hours after their reconstruction work had concluded, Dean and his team were notified that the three-year-old boy had also died from his injuries. “Every collision that we deal with is emotive,” Dean said. “Everyone has got a personal story. It just seems to make it worse when there’s children involved.

You want to get answers for that family, and this was no exception.” Observing Newman’s driving before the crash took place, Dean said: “Alarm bells started ringing. You could quite clearly see for most of the route – from the Severn Bridge, the driving was very erratic.”

He later added: “From an experienced traffic police officer’s perspective, you see people driving like that, you know there’s something wrong or there’s a major distraction in the van.” Discussing with his co-worker a bit later on while still observing CCTV footage of Newman’s driving, Dean explained: “We know that he was talking on the phone at this point, but it wasn’t connected via Bluetooth.” He added: “It wouldn’t have been hands-free.” At one point, Newman ended his phone call.

Still observing the footage, Dean said: “But he’s also streaming YouTube and Spotify – we are not able to say if he’s interacting with the phone at this point, there’s a good chance that he is. It’s a miracle there was no accident prior to this.”

The team’s reconstruction work showed how the van hit into the rear of the car (Image: BBC Wales)

Dean explained that the van’s full journey was recorded from the Prince of Wales Bridge to Tredegar [8] Park intersection, but footage was unable to show the last section approximately two to three metres prior to the impact. “We needed to piece together the last bit that was missing,” Dean added. As a result, Dean turned his focus to the potential information he could find in the airbag control module, which controls the airbag’s deployment and stores crash data. “The biggest question was, how fast was the driver of the transit van going?

What was the data telling us? “What it’s saying is that five seconds prior to the impact he’s doing 112 kilometres per hour, which is equivalent to 69 or just under 70mph. And then 2.5 seconds prior to the impact, the brakes are applied, he hasn’t sufficiently braked hard enough to activate the anti-lock brakes.

“And as you can see from the graph, he is braking down to the moment of impact. So at impact, the van was still doing 57mph. It’s a huge impact.

57mph as it hit the rear of the Fiesta, something that is stationary and a small vehicle.” Newman was found to be over two and a half times the drink-drive limit. He said he had drunk heavily the night before and taken cocaine.

A half full bottle of wine and an empty bottle of Vodka in the footwell of the van. In April 2022, he was sentenced to nine years and four months imprisonment.[9] He was also disqualified from driving for 10 years with an extension of four years and eight months while he is in custody. He will be required to pass an extended driving test before being able to regain a licence.

The defendant will serve half of his sentence in custody before serving the rest of the sentence on licence. “He’d already been convicted previously of drink driving,” Dean said. “He’d already been convicted for using his mobile phone whilst driving. It was obviously something that was part of his routine.

He knew what he was doing, and it has caught up with him in the most tragic circumstances.”

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References

^ the M4 (www.walesonline.co.uk)
^ van driver Martin Newman (www.walesonline.co.uk)
^ ‘Travelling at nearly 70mph on a 30mph road is only going to end one way’ (www.walesonline.co.uk)
^ Mum whose two children were killed by drink driver gives birth to surprise baby (www.walesonline.co.uk)
^ Newport (www.walesonline.co.uk)
^ The Crash Detectives (www.bbc.co.uk)
^ Gwent Police (www.walesonline.co.uk)
^ Tredegar (www.walesonline.co.uk)
^ nine years and four months imprisonment. (www.walesonline.co.uk)
^ click on this link (chat.whatsapp.com)
^ Privacy Notice here. (www.reachplc.com)
^ Join our WhatsApp community here. (chat.whatsapp.com)