Drink driver from Rotherham took photo of speedometer with phone moments before crash killed baby and aunt

Darryl Anderson , aged 38, from Rotherham, was almost three times over the speed limit and took a photo of his speedometer showing 141mph moments before he crashed into the back of the car in which the aunt and baby were travelling.

Mother Sharlona Warner tearfully described frantically searching for her eight-month-old son Zackary Blades who was thrown from her Peugeot 308, out of his car seat, and into the opposite carriageway of the A1 motorway in the early hours of May 31, between Chester-le-Street and Durham .

Her sister Karlene was thrown from the back seat into the front airbags and both she and her nephew were killed instantly, Durham Crown Court heard.

Darryl Anderson , 38, had been driving his Audi Q5 erratically from Newcastle Airport having drunk excessively on the plane back from a shortened holiday, after falling out with his wife.

By coincidence, Sharlona Warner had been to pick up her 30-year-old sister, a flight attendant, from the same airport.

Anderson, of Clarell Walk, Thorpe Hesley, in Rotherham, admitted two counts of causing death by dangerous driving at a previous hearing.

Judge Joanne Kidd jailed him for 17 years and three months and banned him from driving for a further 21-and-a-half years when he is released.

Around 50 friends and family members of the two victims were in court for the sentencing.

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Judge Kidd told Anderson he had been playing "Russian roulette" with the lives of other drivers that night and a fatal crash was inevitable.

Anderson was breathalysed at the scene and police recorded a 95mg of alcohol per 100ml of breath when the legal limit is 35mg.

Police found an empty vodka bottle in the wreckage of his car.

He had been using WhatsApp while he drove and took a photograph on his phone in which Ms Warner's Peugeot could be seen, showing the speedometer at 141mph, moments before the crash.

Analysis of the Audi's computer showed he had the accelerator fully depressed, did not brake before impact, and that a collision warning light was illuminated on the dashboard.