Relatives of family killed in M6 crash outraged at sentence
Feb 17 2009 By Neil Elkes and Mark Cowan
THE heartbroken relatives of a Birmingham family-of-six killed by a trucker in a road smash today expressed outrage at a sentence that could see him released in little more than a year.
Grieving relatives of Michelle and David Statham and their four children were joined by safety campaign group Speed Kills in asking: “How many people must die for the toughest sentence to be handed out?”
Mr Statham, a 38-year-old chef, his 33-year-old wife, their three sons Reece, 13, Jay, aged nine, Mason, 20 months, and ten-week-old baby daughter Ellouise died when a HGV ploughed into the back of their car as they headed home on the M6 after visiting relatives.
Portuguese driver Paulo Jorge Nogueira da Silva was yesterday convicted of careless driving for what the judge called “one of the most serious offences of its kind”.
But he was jailed for just three years despite the maximum sentence being five years. Today, angry relatives of the dead were joined by road safety campaigners in condemning the sentence.
