Driver in A11 Halloween horror crash had taken escstasy
Sara Pancas died on November 5 last year at the age of 38, two days after crashing her newly-bought Mini into a tree alongside the A11 at Ketteringham. Her housemate Sara Ribeiro, who was a backseat passenger in the car, died at the scene. She was 29.
But shortly after they passed the Thickthorn Roundabout, Ms Pancas struck the kerb before losing control of the vehicle and crashing into a tree, with investigators estimating she had been travelling at around 47mph at the moment of impact. Toxicological examinations found 140mg of MDMA in her system, 14 times the legal limit for the recreational drug. MDMA, or ecstasy, is an illegal Class A drug and the legal driving limit for it is set at 10 micrograms per litre of blood - an extremely low concentration.
Tests also found she had cannabis in her system. Norfolk Constabulary's Sophia Richards, who carried out a forensic crash investigation for the force, said this was the most likely cause of the collision. She said: "The evidence shows both Sara Pancas and Sara Ribeiro had taken quantities of ecstasy.
"Sara Pancas was more than 10 times the legal limit, so the most plausible explanation for the crash was the impairment as a consequence of the drugs in her system." Two other passengers in the car, a man and a woman, suffered injuries in the accident - with Vladmira Silva, who was also in a back seat, spending more than a month in hospital recovering. In a statement to the court, Mr Silva said he had suffered facial fractures and a disjointed hip in the collision, during which he was not wearing a seatbelt.
The accident happened at shortly after 5am on Sunday, November 3, with the wreckage discovered by a passing police car. Officers raised the alarm across the radio before turning around and returning to the scene, with other crews arriving soon afterwards. They found Ms Pancas in the driving seat and Ms Ribeiro unresponsive in the back nearside seat.
All four casualties had to be helped from the car, with Ms Riberio pronounced dead at the scene. Ms Pancas was taken to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridgeshire, but died of traumatic brain injuries on November 5. Anna Dias, the front-seat passenger, has no memory of the crash but was airlifted to hospital afterwards.
Ms Dias, who had recently sold the car to her friend, said in a statement read to the court: "Sara did not want to drive that evening, because she was feeling nervous about driving on the left. "She was anxious about what other people would think about her driving because she was not used to driving in this country and had only recently bought the car." Mr Silva said: "I did not notice anything wrong with her driving, she was a good driver, never used her mobile phone at the wheel and did not speed.
"I was sure that she was fit to drive." 
She concluded Ms Ribeiro, whose medical cause of death was transection of the descending aorta, had died as a result of a road traffic collision.