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An exhausted minibus driver who killed two young women and left three pedestrians seriously injured after she nodded off at the wheel was jailed for five years today.
Collete Wilson, 32, of Brixton, was driving her steel band back from last year's Notting Hill Carnival when she lost control of the hired van and hit five people on the pavement.
Azra Podrug, 35, an assistant manager for a corporate hospitality business, was pronounced dead that day. Zorana Stancic, 22, a Covent Garden fashion buyer, died two months later.
Angelo Branca, his fiancée Nadia Barbagallo, and Lee Marsh, all in their twenties, were treated in hospital for multiple injuries, Inner London crown court heard.
Jonathan Polnay, prosecuting, said Wilson — who admitted two counts of causing death by dangerous driving — had slept for less than 10 hours in the two nights leading up to the crash in South Lambeth Road in the early hours of 26 August last year. She was so tired she did not notice the jolt of the kerb and continued for another 50 metres on the pavement.
The pregnant mother-of-one, who was a steel pan player and treasurer for the Southside Harmonics with a previously clean driving record, sobbed as she was sentenced. Judge Lindsay Burn said: “I have to say the sentence the law allows this court to pass cannot begin to compensate the victims and their families for their suffering or their loss.”
Reader views (2)
RIP Zorana, it was a pleasure knowing you and I hope you celebrate your birthday in style up there xxx
- Amelia, London, 18/11/2009 08:35
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R.I.P. Azra & Zorana
- Friend, London, 10/11/2009 14:13
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