Shane Davis has been jailed for crashing into a killing grandfather John Day while he was nearly twice the drink-drive limit
A shameless drink driver who killed a grandfather in a road crash posted sick messages online in the weeks after the fatal smash, a court has heard.
Shane Davis was nearly twice the alcohol limit and travelling at around 70mph when he veered onto the wrong side of the road in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, crashing into and killing 82-year-old John Day.
Mr Day’s badly injured wife Christine, who had been in the car with him, died in hospital nine days later from a heart attack.
Since the tragedy, Davis has posted a number of upsetting messages on Facebook, including on which said: ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little star, I want to hit with my car, throw you off a tree so high, hope you break your neck and die,’ the prosecutor said.
Davis, 26, admitted causing the death of Mr Day by careless driving while over the alcohol limit and was jailed for six years.
Mr and Mrs Day’s twins, Susanne and Rose, had tearfully told of the devastation and grief of losing both their parents.
Mr and Mrs Day had spent the day of the tragedy in November last year in Malmesbury, helping their granddaughter Lydia to decorate her new home. Lydia was six weeks pregnant at the time but was never able to give her grandparents the happy news.
Mr Day’s wide Christine was also injured in the crash and died nine days later in hospital
Posecutor Brendan Moorhouse said that at about 4.15pm that day, in Cirencester, Davis crashed his Peugeot car into the back of a parked vehicle.
The owner Sharon Smith spoke to him and took a picture of him and his registration plate but he did not exchange full details with her and drove off.
Despite the collision Davis kept driving and fifteen minutes later, on a sharp bend on the A429 near Cotswold airport, Davis was doing about 70mph when he veered completely into the wrong lane and hit Mr Day’s car head on.
The speed limit awas 60mph but the bend had a safe maximum speed of 55mph, the prosecutor said. Although Mr Day was wearing a seat belt, he was thrown forward and suffered fatal spine injuries.
His wife was rushed to Southmead Hospital, Bristol, with serious injuries but died nine days later from a heart attack. Doctors were unable to establish a direct link between her injuries and her death.
Prosecutors said Davis posted upsetting messages online after the crash, although he denied he had put them online
Davis had to be cut free from the wreckage of his car and was taken to hospital with multiple fractures. He later said he had no memory at all of the accident or what led up to it.
His blood alcohol reading was 144mgs – the legal limit being 80mgs.
Mr and Mrs Day’s daughter Suzanne said in a statement: ‘Christmas was the most heartbreaking experience of our lives. To endure the sight of both our parents’ coffins in the church at a time when people are looking forward.’
The family member said she had seen Davis several times since the collision and he was not then wearing the neck brace he has always worn in court.
She added: ‘It is just the measure of a man who has no remorse.
‘This has caused us such sadness. Our lives will never be the same again. Somehow we have got to live with this. God bless our beautiful parents, God bless them.’
The crash happened on this stretch of the A429 near Cotswold airport last November
Steve Young, defending, said Davis had suffered a bleed on the brain, neck fracture, skull fracture, other breaks to the ribs and leg and a ruptured spleen which had to be removed, he added.
Mr Young said Davis did not accept the Facebook entries were all his. Some were on a different page.
‘He doesn’t accept those posts – he has not set out to make matters worse for the family,’ Mr Young said.