Drink-driving mum yelled ‘why didn’t I put on their seatbelts?’ after killing kids, 4 & 10, in a deadly smash
A DRUNK mum screamed "why didn't I put their seatbelts on?" after killing her two children in a horror smash.
Mary McCann, 35, was travelling in a Vauxhall Astra with son Smaller, 10, and four-year-old daughter Lilly when she drifted across lanes of traffic.
Neither of the children had seatbelts on when she smashed into a lorry while driving at 72mph in a 60mph zone.
The mum was charged after she gave a reading of 98 mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood, with the legal limit being 80mg.
But McCann went on the run for almost a week and failed to show up at court to face justice after her children's funeral.
She has now been jailed for four years and one month after pleading guilty to two counts of causing death by careless driving whilst under the influence of alcohol.
She was also banned from driving for seven years and two weeks.
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Aylesbury Crown Court heard how the family were on their way back from a party for Smaller's birthday on August 9 when the horror unfolded.
Boozed-up McCann drifted across the M1 near Milton Keynes and smashed into the back of the lorry.
Little Lilly was catapulted out of the family car and discovered on the side of the road after the mum failed to put seatbelts on her children.
Smaller was flung around the back seat and found slumped in the footwell.
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McCann was heard yelling frantically after the crash "God, why didn't I put their seatbelts on?"
The court was told Lilly would "not have been ejected" if she had been strapped in, while "Smaller would have remained in his seat".
A third child, aged two, was taken to hospital while the driver of the Scania HGV suffered whiplash.
Sentencing, Judge Francis Sheridan said: "The driving in this case was very careless and not far short of dangerous. You did not have sufficient car seats for your children.
"You were under the influence of alcohol, you were speeding and you drifted from one lane into another and collided with the back of a lorry, driven by a hard-working, careful driver.
"This is a heartbreaking case to have to sentence a mother for killing two of her own children because she was drunk and driving as badly as you were.
"I accept that you will carry the cross of what you did for the rest of your life, that is the inevitable outcome for this sort of offence. There is no punishment that can be commensurate with the loss of the two children's lives.
"It is disgraceful that you as a mother could drive a car with three young children in it while over the drink-drive limit."
Tributes flooded in for the youngsters following their deaths.
One heartbroken neighbour told The Sun: “She’ll struggle to cope without her kids. They were her world. She lived for them.
“It’s the worst thing ever to happen. We can’t believe they’ve gone.
“We don't know what happened but it’s shocked everyone. It’s horrible. We can’t stop crying. She was a good mum, she’ll never get over it."
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Another relative said: "RIP you two beautiful little angels. Never seen sadder in my life.
"Such a cruel world we all live in. Keep their mummy and daddy in your prayers, couldn’t imagine their pain. Two little lives taken way too soon. A little brother and sister gone to heaven together."
