Tammy Langton, 33, of Blackheath, London, was charged after her passenger Laura Cooper, 35, of Leicester, was killed in the M25 crash
A woman who ran out of petrol on a motorway before a fatal smash has been cleared of causing death by dangerous driving.
Tammy Langton, 33, of Blackheath, London, was charged after her passenger Laura Cooper, 35, of Leicester, was killed in the M25 crash.
The case is believed to be the first of its kind in the UK.
But after Langton was today cleared of a charge of causing the death by dangerous driving on the basis she had driven on the motorway without sufficient petrol, she was told she could still face jail after being convicted of causing death by careless driving while unfit through drugs.
Langton was found to have excessive amounts of cannabis in her system. She admitted she had the drug in her system but claimed it was from the last time she smoked two days earlier.
The prosecution also claimed that Langton had shared a cannabis joint with her passengers before she left London at lunchtime and another en route to Leicester at Toddington Services on the M1.
Co-accused HGV driver, Anthony Cheshire, 63, of Telford, whose vehicle ploughed into Langton’s car, was cleared of causing death by dangerous driver but was convicted of causing death by careless driving.
The pair will be sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court next month and Judge Jonathan Seely warned all sentencing options remained open, including jail sentences.
The accident took place at 2.00am on March 29, 2016, on an unlit part of the clocking M25 between junctions 26 and 27 in Essex, where there is no hard shoulder.
Langton’s Nissan Note had run out of petrol and was stranded with two other passengers and a dog inside. The vehicle was more than a metre into the nearside lane of the four-lane carriage and was hit from behind at 56mph by the HGV driven by Cheshire.
Cooper, who was sat in the rear passenger seat, suffered fatal injuries and died a few days later in hospital.
Langton’s Nissan Note had run out of petrol and was stranded with two other passengers and a dog inside. The vehicle was more than a metre into the nearside lane of the four-lane carriage and was hit from behind at 56mph by the HGV driven by Cheshire
Langton, from Blackheath in London, is on trial along with the driver of the lorry Anthony Cheshire, 63, from Sutton Hill who smashed into the car in his Scania R620 lorry (File photo)
Front passenger Yasmin Fry, aged 17 at the time, suffered serious injuries. Langton herself was hurt but the Staffordshire bull terrier was unscathed.
Mr Halsey said Langton had carried on driving when the fuel warning light was on and she had said while still in Leicester to Yasmin Fry ‘there isn’t enough petrol to get back to London.’
The court heard it was a 256 mile round trip and Langton put in £30 of fuel.
Laura Cooper, 35, (pictured) was killed in the M25 crash
And in a phone conversation between Miss Cooper and someone else, just 16 minutes before the crash, Langton mentioned they were ’36 miles from nan’s’.
Lorry driver Cheshire had been travelling 30 seconds behind Langton’s Nissan at the wheel of his Scania R620 articulated lorry.
Lorry driver Cheshire, a former Company Sergeant Major in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, was carrying a load of chilled produce for Lidl when his vehicle hit the rear offside of Langton’s stranded car.
Langton and Cheshire both pleaded not guilty to causing the death of Ms Cooper by dangerous driving and were acquitted.
Cheshire also denied an alternative charge of causing her death by careless driving and denied causing serious injury by dangerous driving to Yasmin Fry and Tammy Langton.
But he was convicted by a majority of 10-2 of causing death by careless driving but cleared on all other counts.
Both defendants were given interim driving bans and their sentence was adjourned by Judge Jonathan Seely until March 23 for reports. Both were granted bail.