I buried two family members just 12 months apart after a brutal accident – we will never get the justice we deserve
Ella says that she feels so angry about the fate of her parents
FOR most, this time of year represents fresh starts and new life.
But for Ella Langston, Easter is a haunting reminder of the tragic loss she suffered two years in a row.
Ella, 21, who lost both her parents just one year apart, has spoken of her family’s anger after learning their father’s killer will serve just over five years in jail.
Jonathan Langston, 52, and his wife Helene, 49, were tragically laid to rest on the same date, just one year apart.
Helene, 49, lost her battle with bowel cancer in March 2022. One year on, Jonathan was killed by a driver who was doing 93mph in a 30mph residential zone.
His devastated family learned in January that his killer, Adeel Safdar, 28, will serve only 5 years and 4 months of his eight-year sentence in prison.
‘TRAGIC IRONY’
Jonathan’s daughter, Ella, 21, from Manchester, says: “When mum was having chemotherapy, she’d spend a lot of time in bed, and the speeding drivers outside kept her awake.
“She used to say they were driving far too fast.
“It’s a tragic irony that just one year after losing her, one of those speeding drivers killed our father too.
“We were heartbroken after losing Mum, but Dad really rallied round.
“He gave up smoking and he did all he could to help us through our grief. He was just starting to find a bit of happiness again when his life was so cruelly snatched away.
“I feel so angry about the sentence. It’s no punishment for taking away my dad’s life and it is certainly no deterrent to others.
“I cannot imagine how anyone can drive at more than three times the speed limit and not expect it to end in tragedy.”
HAPPY MEMORIES
Ella and her three siblings grew up in Chorlton, Manchester, with their mother working as a primary school teacher and their father working in IT and running after school care.
Ella says: “The after-school club at my sister’s school folded and so Dad stepped in to take it over.
“That was the sort of person he was, always full of ideas, ambition and energy. He was really sociable and had lots of friends.
“Mum loved her work as a teacher, she was involved in the local church and did a lot of volunteering.
“We had many happy holidays in France and my parents had hoped to move over there.”
MISTAKEN DIAGNOSIS
At the end of 2019, Helene became ill with what doctors at first thought was IBS.
But tests later showed she had stage four bowel cancer.
She had chemotherapy and surgery and the family rallied around to look after her.
Ella says: “We all had different roles, to help out. I did a lot of the cooking.
“Mum used to say she hated listening to drivers tearing up and down the roads near our home, she worried people would get hurt.”
We could not believe we had lost both our parents, and in such appalling circumstances
Ella Langston
Helene’s treatment failed and she sadly passed away in March 2022, aged 49, with her family around her.
Her funeral was held two days after Easter at their local church, St John’s, on April 19, 2022, with cremation afterwards.
Ella says: “Dad focussed on looking after us all after Mum died. He was very family oriented.
“He kept himself busy, he bought a camper van and had plans to travel. He was really sociable and spent time with his friends and his brothers.
“He gave up smoking, trying to be as healthy as he could.”
DOUBLE TRAGEDY
But in March 2023, as he walked home after drinks with long-standing family friends, Jonathan was killed by Adeel Safdar who reached speeds of 93 mph in a 30mph speed limit before the collision.
He was also caught on CCTV using a right turn only lane to overtake another vehicle.
Safdar, 28, driving a VW Golf, did not stop after hitting Jonathan, and only returned shortly afterwards, after his friend made a phone call.
In January Manchester Crown Court heard that Jonathan would have been able to cross the road without incident, had Safdar been driving at a safe speed.
Sentencing, the judge told Safdar: “You know what you have done, you have expressed remorse for it.
“It may be very difficult indeed for Jonathan Langston’s family to accept that you have expressed remorse, and hard for them to accept that is something I must take into account, but I must, and I will.
“You drove at extraordinary speeds, described by the police to the family of Jonathan Langston as motorway speeds, but they would be excessive speeds for the motorway. What possessed you to do what you did is hard to fathom.”
He was told he will serve two-thirds of his sentence in prison, around five years and four months.
Speeding causes 20,000 road casualties a year
ALMOST 20,000 people are injured on Britain's roads each year because of speeding - and 70mph motorways aren't to blame.
The research by Direct Line reveals A-roads are the most dangerous – following by country lane B-roads for Brits going too fast.
Between 2012 and 2016 there were 97,256 speeding related casualties, the equivalent of 53 people injured every day.
One in nine accidents on Britain’s roads over the past five years have been speed related – with drivers either exceeding the speed limit or travelling too fast for the road conditions.
And speeding is the second most deadly contributing factor in a crash – second only to “loss of control”
Almost half of all crashes caused by speeding occur on A-roads, while one in seven take place on B-roads. Just four per cent of speeding related accidents were on motorways.
Britain’s worst speeding casualty regions are the West Midlands and South West while gridlocked London has the lowest proportion of speed accidents.
The judge said he’d arrived at his eight-year sentence, after a starting point of 14 years.
Judge Dean said he reduced the sentence to 12 years for Safdar’s remorse and ‘good character’, before reducing it by a third, because he had indicated he would plead guilty at the first opportunity.
Safdar was also banned from driving for 10 years and four months.
APPALLING CIRCUMSTANCES
Ella was at university in Durham at the time of the collision and had to hear the news from her brother, Paddy, now 18.
She says: “I was due to go home the next day for the Easter holidays, and I called Dad the night before and we were planning a Friday night curry.
“Instead I had to drive all the way back, through the early hours, knowing my dad was dead.
“My brother was on his own, aged 17, in the house. Our older sister, Georgia, came as quickly as she could too.
“We were all in shock. We could not believe we had lost both our parents, and in such appalling circumstances.
“Dad’s funeral was held exactly a year after Mum’s, April 19 2023, and at the same church. Dad’s death was entirely avoidable, which makes it very hard.
“The road where Dad died is a busy, residential area. It’s unthinkable that you would ever reach 90mph.
“If there were working speed cameras, perhaps Safdar’s driving would have been picked up previously and Dad’s death might have been prevented.
“We were all in court, and we read statements, for Dad. But when the judge announced his sentencing, we couldn’t believe what we were hearing. It was so confusing. The sentence was reduced and reduced again, until he arrived at five years and four months in prison.
‘SO ANGRY’
“We were in shock. It was such an anti-climax.
“Now it’s sinking in, I feel so angry. It absolutely does not reflect the enormity of the loss of my dad. The punishment is not fair. It is no deterrent to other dangerous drivers either.
“We have scattered Mum and Dad’s ashes at the place they loved in France and now we must somehow rebuild our lives without them.
“Georgia has returned to work; Paddy has started university. I’ve taken a year out of my studies, but I am determined to return next year. But it’s very hard, knowing Dad should be here with us.
“By sharing our story, we hope to encourage people to think twice about speeding unnecessarily in residential areas, so that other lives can be spared and tragedies such as ours can be avoided in the future.”
In their father’s memory, the family are now fundraising for Brake, the road safety charity, and Ella’s elder sister, Georgia, will run the Manchester Half Marathon this coming October.
To donate visit their JustGiving page .
