Family death crash driver jailed

Easton had been drinking at a party the night before the crash

A van driver has been jailed for seven years after killing a Tyneside family of four in a crash in North Yorkshire.

Scott Easton, 23, of Stockton, was jailed at Teesside Crown Court on Friday after earlier admitting causing death by dangerous driving.

The court heard he had been to a party the night before the A1 crash, had been drinking and had had very little sleep.

Paula Gilbert, 29, Neil Jex, 37, and sons Tristan, three, and Kaiden, seven months, all died in the smash.

The only survivor was Macauley Gilbert, from South Tyneside, who will be nine years old on Saturday.

Easton was also told he would be banned from driving for seven years following his release from prison.

Macauley, eight, was the only member of his family who survived

The court heard how the delivery driver had been to a party the night before the crash, had been drinking and had very little sleep.

Teesside Crown Court heard the crash was caused by a combination of the alcohol and lack of sleep.

Sgt Les Moorhouse, of North Yorkshire Police, said after the hearing: "The likelihood is that he was in the process of dozing off or had dozed off."

There was also evidence that Easton had been using his mobile phone shortly before the accident, but it was not known whether he had been on the phone at the point of impact.

The dead family's Citroen Saxo was clipped by Easton's Ford Transit van, forcing it to career off the road and into trees on a stretch of the A1 trunk road between the junctions for Catterick and Leeming.

The driver's barrister, Tim Roberts, QC, said his client had accepted his responsibility for what had happened.

Mr Roberts said: "He should not have got behind the wheel of his van that day.

"He should have had the maturity and good sense to walk away from work and acknowledge that he was not fit to drive."