A father who crashed the vehicle he was driving after having a cocaine-fuelled epileptic fit at the wheel, killing his teenage son, has been jailed for 10 years.
Daniel Burba, 31, was driving his wife’s Peugeot van when it swerved off the M6 near Lancaster in Lancashire and hit a tree in April.
His 14-year-old son, Ryan Morgan, suffered head injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene of the collision on the southbound carriageway between junctions 34 and 33.
The youngster died “in terror” as he tried to gain control of the van moments before the crash, Preston Crown Court heard.
Burba, from Morecambe, who had been advised not to drive due to his fits and only had a provisional driving licence, was taken to hospital with “relatively minor” injuries to his ribs and lacerations.
While he was being treated, a paramedic found a small bag of cocaine in Burba’s wallet, and blood tests showed he was four times above the legal drug-drive limit, the court heard.
Burba had been told by his doctor more than a decade earlier to stop taking the banned class A drug after he suffered a seizure which lasted up to four minutes. He was also advised not to drive.
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He was given a similar warning in February when he was admitted to hospital after more fits and was also told to inform the DVLA.
Sentencing him, Judge Robert Altham reminded him that he knew cocaine made further fits more likely and should not have been driving at all, “unsupervised and certainly not on the motorway”.
“You chose to drive on a motorway on a busy bank holiday Sunday. You had a passenger in the van, and that passenger was your son, a person you should have been protecting and not endangering.”
“You knew that taking cocaine made your decision to drive all the more dangerous. Your driving put many other road users in danger,” Judge Altham, the Honorary Recorder of Preston, added.
Burba pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to causing death by dangerous driving and also admitted driving without a licence or insurance.
He had been travelling in convoy with his wife, Frances – Ryan’s stepmother – and their three children.
Witnesses described Burba driving “erratically” on the motorway with hazard lights on as the vehicle narrowly missed swerving into a coach on the inside lane.
A witness said the front seat passenger “looked really scared” and was apparently trying to steer the van while the driver was slumped over the wheel.
The Bipper van hit the central reservation, swerved across the carriageway and then up a grass bank before it hit a tree, the court heard.
Ryan’s mother Kim, who was in court, said Burba’s actions were “disgusting”.
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Her son “would have changed the world,” she said.
“He [Ryan] made it a better place in the short time he was here. He made everyone smile who came into contact with him. He had a smile that lit up the room.
“Daniel has taken all that and more.”
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Paul Humphries, defending, said Burba was “remorseful” and “very much regrets his actions that day”.
Burba was banned from driving for 14 years and five months.
