Fatal crash ecstasy driver jailed

Two men and a woman in the people carrier died at the scene

A woman who crashed a hire car after taking ecstasy at a music festival, killing three people, has been jailed.

Andrew Lucas, 21, Paul Smith, 26, and Joanna Walker, 18, all from Maidstone, Kent, died at the scene of the accident on the M25 in Essex on 21 August 2006.

Theresa Clarke, 28, from Uckfield, East Sussex, was driving her friends back from the V Festival, in Staffordshire.

She pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and was sentenced to four years by Snaresbrook Crown Court.

The court heard how she had fallen asleep at the wheel of the car just hours after taking one and a half tablets of the Class A drug.

It seems likely that all of the occupants of the vehicle were asleep or nearly asleep at the time Robert Ellison, prosecutor

The people carrier she was driving veered off the M25 at high speed during the early hours, hitting a bank and spinning repeatedly in an "horrific" crash.

Clarke had to be resuscitated five times at the crash site and was in hospital for six weeks.

Two other passengers in the car, Jennifer Oliver, 18, and Rob Marchant, 21, survived.

The court was told they had all spent the day at the music festival, drinking and, in Clarke's case, taking ecstasy.

After the crash, she lied to police, claiming to have taken only half a pill.

Andrew Lucas was one of the three who died in the M25 crash

Robert Ellison, prosecuting, said the group left the festival site at about midnight, with Clarke behind the wheel, and had taken repeated breaks.

Clarke knew she was tired and asked her friends to keep her talking so she did not lapse into sleep, he said.

The car crashed at 80mph between junctions 28 and 29 of the M25, where the road curves to the right.

"It seems likely that all of the occupants of the vehicle were asleep or nearly asleep at the time," Mr Ellison said.

Passing sentence, Judge William Kennedy said Clarke was "coming down" from the effect of the drugs when she got behind the wheel.

He said: "I have no doubt that the consumption of ecstasy was one of the greatest contributing factors to this terrible accident."

Clarke was banned from driving for three years and jailed for four years for each of the three counts of causing death by dangerous driving, with the sentences to be served concurrently.