Death driver's five-year sentence

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/7478359.stm

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A Limavady man has been jailed for five-and-a-half-years for two counts of causing death by dangerous driving.

Mark Ellis, 20, of Josephine Avenue was also fined £1,000 for driving without insurance.

Ellis was found guilty at Antrim Crown Court last month of killing Margaret Chivers, 85, and his friend, Adam Montague

He had been driving along the Cam Road close to Macosquin on 6 August 2006 when he lost control of his car.

The black Peugot 206 he was driving careered into a lamp-post, breaking it in two, before ploughing head-on into a Ford Ka driven by Mrs Chivers's daughter, Ethna.

Mrs Chivers died the same day, but Mr Montague, who had been in the front passenger seat, died 10 days later.

The jury heard that, despite Ellis being a restricted driver at the time of the crash and therefore limited to a maximum speed of 45mph, he told police he had been driving at around 60mph going into the left-hand bend where he lost control.

He claimed that "something was not right" with the road and that "it may have been greasy".

However, a Crown lawyer said: "We say what wasn't right was that he was driving too hard and too fast for the driving conditions."

Ellis's jail term will be followed by 18 months on probation.