Moment drug driver inhaled laughing gas before ‘wiping out’ life of girl, 15

31 October 2023 , 14:16

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Moment drug driver inhaled laughing gas before ‘wiping out’ life of girl, 15

A delivery driver who inhaled laughing gas at the wheel “wiped out” his teenage passenger when he crashed his van into a metal barrier.

Cameron Hughes, 24, was also using his mobile phone to stream music and access Snapchat seconds before the crash at around 65mph in July in Huncoat, Lancashire. His passenger, family friend Bonney Rae Barrow, 15, was rushed to Royal Manchester Children's Hospital and later transferred to Wythenshawe Hospital where she was placed on life support but died just before midnight the next day. Hughes, of Haddington Drive, Blackley, north Manchester, previously pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving at Preston Crown Court. Today he was jailed for seven and a half years.

Bonny Barrow was killed in the accident (Lancashire Police / SWNS)

Cameron Hughes was filmed inhaling nitrous oxide (Lancashire Police / SWNS)

During an emotional sentencing hearing, Bonney's mum, Sarah Barrow, read a statement about her daughter and the circumstances in which she died. She said Hughes was a family friend who had grown up with Bonnie and described her as a 'cousin'. On July 7, she recalled she had trusted Hughes to keep her daughter safe on the short journey home. Ms Barrow said: "Part of my heart stopped beating the day Bonnie's heart stopped beating. All he had to do that day was to be responsible to get Bonnie home to our safety bit he risked her life with what he did and cost us our beautiful daughter."

She cried as she said she would never see her daughter finish school, enjoy her prom, learn to drive or start her own family. She said Bonney and Hughes had a close bond which was full of laughter. At 7:20pm, Hughes left the A56 Accrington Bypass at the junction with Burnley Road in Huncoat. His Mercedes Sprinter was travelling between 62 and68mph on the 60mph zone and approached the junction at an “inappropriate speed”.

Hughes failed to negotiate a left hand bend and ploughed the van into a parapet over a dirt track. The van left the bridge and plunged to the ground below, throwing Bonnie towards the windscreen. Neither the driver or the passenger were wearing seatbelts, the court heard. Hughes was recorded inhaling laughing gas from a yellow balloon before the crash.

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Sentencing, Judge Heather Lloyd said: “This was quite a shocking piece of driving and a young 15-year-old life has been needlessly wiped out. It is a miracle that no other person was wiped out, including yourself. This was a tragedy waiting to happen.”

Antony Clements-Thrower