Man jailed for family death crash

Scott Easton's Ford Transit van clipped the back of the family's Citroen Saxo car, causing it to spin out of control and collide with trees on a stretch of the A1.

Paula Gilbert, 29, Neil Jex, 37, and two of their sons - Tristan, aged three, and seven-month-old Kaiden - all died at the scene while, eight-year-old son Macauley survived after he was flown to the James Cook Memorial Hospital on Teesside by the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

Easton, 23, was jailed at Teesside Crown Court for seven years and banned from driving for seven years.

The court was told he accepted the blame for the tragedy and heard that he should never have gone to work having had at least five pints of lager and a vodka in a pub before going to a party then having around just three hours sleep before starting work.

Tests showed that at the time of the incident he would have been over the legal drink drive limits.

The tragedy happened near the village of Kirkby Feltham, in North Yorkshire, on March 3.

At a hearing in September Easton pleaded guilty at Teesside Crown Court to four counts of causing death by dangerous driving.

Easton, from Rushyford Avenue, Stockton on Tees, was told by Judge David Bryant that there were a number of aggravating factors and that the starting point for sentencing was 10 years minus a third off for his early guilty plea.

His barrister, Tim Roberts QC, told the court: "It is accepted that through drowsiness, that may have been a product of either lack of sleep or alcohol, or a combination of both he was dangerously inattentive to his road positioning. He should never have got behind the wheel of his van that day. He should have had the maturity and good sense to walk away from work and acknowledge he was not fit to drive."