Dad who killed son in cocaine-fuelled crash jailed

James Mountford

BBC News, Lancashire

A man who ignored medical advice to stop driving due to his epilepsy diagnosis and took cocaine before a crash that killed his teenage son has been jailed for 10 years.

Daniel Burba, 31, from Morecambe, had a fit at the wheel of his wife's van before it swerved off the M6 near Lancaster on 20 April, killing 14-year-old Ryan Morgan.

Paramedics found a small bag of the Class A drug as they treated Burba, 31, who had previously had seizures because of his abuse of cocaine.

Jailing Burba, Preston Crown Court Judge Robert Altham told him he had made a "deliberate decision" to drive and "disregarded the lives of others".

The court heard Burba had been unconscious when Ryan tried to grab the wheel to take control of the vehicle before it crashed into a tree between junctions 33 and 34.

Ryan died "in terror", the court was told.

But Burba, who had never passed a driving test and only had a provisional licence, was taken to hospital with "relatively minor" cuts and injuries to his ribs.

Blood tests revealed he was four times above the legal drug-drive limit.

An investigation found he had been told by a doctor in October 2024 that he should stop taking cocaine after suffering a seizure which lasted up to four minutes.

Judge Altham, the Honorary Recorder of Preston, told the court Burba's decision to drive had not been impulsive.

"You were uninsured.

You shouldn't have been driving", he said, adding Burba would have known that taking cocaine would have made the decision to drive even more dangerous.

Judge Altham said Ryan "has been denied the vast majority of his life and he was by any measure a remarkable young boy".

In an impact statement, Ryan's sister said he had "left a hole in my heart which will never be filled".

Burba, of Arnside Crescent, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to causing death by dangerous driving.

He also admitted driving without a licence and without insurance.