Teenage driver on cocaine killed couple on 70th birthday trip
A teenage driver on cocaine[1] fell asleep at the wheel and killed a couple going on a glamping trip for a 70th birthday.
Jessica Higgs, then 19, took drugs at a party the night before crashing into Tony Mist and Thelma Huse’s Fiat 500 on the A303 near Yeovilton in Somerset in May last year.
North Somerset Courthouse heard Higgs’s vehicle, which was travelling eastbound up to the speed limit of 50mph, suddenly drifted over the white line and into the westbound lane at around 2.40pm.
The van crashed head-on into a Fiat 500 being driven by Mr Mist with his partner Ms Huse in the passenger seat.
The couple, both 69, from Mytchett, Surrey, were on their way to Charmouth, Dorset, for a glamping trip to celebrate Mr Mist’s 70th birthday two days later.
They both suffered fatal injuries in the collision, with the father of two pronounced dead at the scene and the grandmother of five dying in hospital in Bristol the next day.
Higgs, from Warminster, was found to be over the specified limit for benzoylecgonine – a metabolite of cocaine[2] – when her blood was tested at 8pm on the day of the crash.
The electrical apprentice later pleaded guilty to two counts of causing death by careless driving while under the influence of drugs[3].
Judge Paul Cook jailed Higgs, who had no previous convictions, for three years and five months and disqualified her from driving for five years after she is released from custody.
Mr Mist and Ms Huse had been together for 30 years and were both due to celebrate their 70th birthdays
Credit: Avon and Somerset Police
The judge told Higgs: “What all the impact statements make clear is the heartbreaking devastation that has been suffered by the family members and those who loved them.
“They say these were two people with so much more life to live for and to give.”
The judge said character statements provided for Higgs described her as caring, loving and thoughtful.
He added: “While physically you have recovered, you are consumed by guilt and remorse and described as a shell of the person you were.”
The judge said Higgs, who wept throughout the court hearing, was driving within the speed limit and other motorists did not note anything unusual until the van drifted across the road.
He told Higgs: “I accept that you didn’t know you had cocaine still in your blood, however nodding off as you did was a consequence of being overtired.”
Drug consumed 36 hours before crash
The court heard Higgs went to a party on May 13 and took cocaine, last consuming the drug in the early hours of May 14 – around 36 hours before the crash.
She went to bed early that day and awoke at 6am before being collected for work at 6.25am. Later that morning, she was tasked with driving her work van from Salisbury to Axminster.
Higgs picked up a water pump at Axminster and had an hour’s rest before setting off to drive back to Salisbury at 2pm.
Rupert Russell, prosecuting, said Mr Mist would not have had the “time or space to avoid the collision” once Higgs’s van had crossed over the white line.
He told the court Higgs had been “up all night on the Saturday to Sunday taking cocaine” which had caused her to be tired. “It is the tiredness which clearly led to this tragedy,” Mr Russell said.
The court heard Mr Mist and Ms Huse had been together for 30 years and were both due to celebrate their milestone 70th birthdays.
Kate Cory, Ms Huse’s daughter, described how they had been travelling to Charmouth “for a much-anticipated glamping holiday” for Mr Mist’s birthday before celebrating Ms Huse’s birthday with a theatre trip.
She added: “Their 30-year love story came to an abrupt end far too soon and that’s something none of us will ever get over.”
Malcolm Galloway, representing Higgs, said she was aged 19 at the time of the collision and had held her driving licence for just nine months.
“The remorse is genuine,” Mr Galloway said. “Of course, if she could turn the clock back, she would.”
Tony Hall, an officer with Avon and Somerset Police, added: “It is every motorist’s responsibility to make sure they are fit enough to drive before getting behind the wheel and it is clear Higgs was not.
“This is another painful and devastating reminder that driving while under the influence of drugs is a deadly decision that puts yourself and innocent road users at serious risk.”
References
- ^ teenage driver on cocaine (www.telegraph.co.uk)
- ^ a metabolite of cocaine (www.telegraph.co.uk)
- ^ careless driving while under the influence of drugs (www.telegraph.co.uk)