The accident happened on the M4 motorway heading west between junctions 28 and 29 in Newport. Gracie-Ann died the day after the crash and Jayden-Lee five days later. The brothers, from Tredegar, were on their way home from a birthday party when the car they were traveling in was hit by a Transit driven by Newman on South Avenue in Croeserw, Cymmer, Neath Port Talbot. An interrogator heard that the children were in a car that was stationary on the hard shoulder.
Read more: Go here to read all the latest stories from the Welsh courts The 41-year-old defendant pleaded guilty to two counts of causing death by dangerous driving. He also pleaded guilty to causing serious injury to the mother of the children Rhiannon Lucas with dangerous driving. Appearing in Cardiff Crown Court on Friday after being remanded in custody, Newman, who was sobbing in his chair, also pleaded guilty to charges of driving under the influence of alcohol and driving drugs. During Friday’s hearing, the court was informed of Newman’s erratic driving in the creation of the fatal crash. Describing the facts of the case, prosecutor Roger Griffiths said: “At 1.40 p.m. on Saturday, February 5, this year there was a deadly collision between a white Ford Transit truck driven by Martin Newman and a red Ford Fiesta containing Adam Saunders, Rhiannon Lucas. both of her children. The Ford Fiesta was mounted on the hard shoulder. Gracie-Ann said she had a bad stomach and had to stop for a while. Mr. Saunders stopped his car on the hard shoulder and Mrs. Lucas got out to meet her daughter’s needs and returned to the passenger seat. “The white Transit van of the accused had been dragged from lane three to the hard shoulder, a collision with the rear of the Ford Fiesta with catastrophic consequences. “Gracie-Ann and Jayden-Lee died tragically from their injuries in the collision and their mother suffered serious injuries to her liver.” Newman was sentenced to nine years and four months in prison. He was also banned from driving for 10 years with an extension of four years and eight months while in custody. He will have to pass an extensive driving test before he can regain his license. The accused will serve half of his sentence in custody before serving the remainder of the sentence with leave. “Unfortunately, after a week of fighting, Jayden died. He was wonderful, creative and a kind soul. He made the gray skies blue,” Jamie Lucas, a 19-year-old cousin from Abergavenny, told the PA news agency. In an earlier tribute to Gracie-Ann, he said: “I’m just trying to wrap my head around the fact that he is gone; it’s hard to believe. “She was so young. She had a bright future ahead of her. She was such a wonderful child. I really missed the words. How she was coming back from a birthday party and suddenly she left.” He added: “She was very smart, she was very creative. She also had a lot of imagination. It was just fantastic that she was close.” Last month there was a beautiful joint funeral for the brothers who saw pigeons released into the air and a Frozen and Spiderman theme to reflect their interests. You can see more about this here. Watch live updates from the court:
title: “Van Driver Who Killed Young Brother And Sister In M4 Crash Jailed For Nine Years And Four Months " ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-14” author: “Dawn Rowe”
He said: “I feel lost without my children. Nobody understands what I’m going through. I know I’m still in shock and I’ve not worked out exactly what happened and I’m not sure if I’ll do it for long. I constantly feel like I’m riding a wave up and down and I do not know when it will stop. “I sleep about three hours a night and suffer from flashbacks and nightmares of the accident. My mind does not seem to stop and it is constantly running a hundred miles per hour. I started falling asleep and was told I was suffering from traumatic stress disorder. When I wake up I think of the kids and we should have taken a different route to Cardiff. But I know I’m not to blame and I’m telling Adam. I know that the person in charge is to blame. If he were not on the road that day, Adam and I would not have been through all this. “I am taking strong analgesic drugs to try to help me with the pain from my injuries from the accident. I have always suffered from depression and now it only gets worse. My daily medication makes me drowsy and I suffer from severe headaches that cause a huge lack of motivation. “I know, Adam doubts and blames himself for that. I tell him that he should not and that he is a better driver than the one in charge. Adam knows below what limits he would or would not be allowed to drive. I do not understand why people should drink or take drugs these days. Even using your mobile phone, we have such good technology that we just do not need it. “People need to know when you drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs that you are putting other people at risk, and that’s what the person in charge did that day. I hate that people think they can do it and get away with it. And because of his actions that day it happened “. Ms. Lucas’s statement, written before the children’s funeral last month, continues. He said: “I have the funeral to come and I know it will hit me like a ton of bricks. I feel anxious and I know that my anxiety will irritate me this day. The community was a great support network, but we had people who started rumors – asking why Adam resigned, why we did this, why we did that – but I try not to let people take my best. “My daily life would revolve around children. I would love to clean the house after them, clean their rooms, wash their clothes and get them ready for school. I miss my dad making boiled Gracie-Ann eggs and Jayden-Lee having cereal or chips for breakfast. I miss that a lot and I feel that life is boring now. I see other parents taking their children to school. I struggle to smile at them, wishing it was me, Gracie-An and Jaden Lee. “We had a good bedtime routine. The bed would be at half past seven every night at the latest. I slept with Jayden-Lee and my dad used to put Gracie-Ann to sleep every night – he would tickle her back and sing her songs to put her to sleep. She would never go to bed without him. “I can not sleep without Jayden-Lee’s pillow and my dad can not sleep without Gracie-Ann’s booboo which was her comfort blanket and Jayden-Lee teddy bear. These items still smell like it was the last thing he lay on. When I have these items I feel that both children are still with me. Nevertheless, it is heartbreaking that both of my children are still gone. The house is not the same and will never be the same. “Their toys stayed exactly where they left them that day.” Ms. Lucas described the personality of her children. He said: “Jayden-Lee had a bad personality and a large group of friends. However, Gracie-Ann was different and enjoyed her own company. She was as quiet as a mouse. As different as they were, they both lived in each other’s pockets and would always be together. I miss their different personalities and how they were. He was always with me and there was never a boring moment. “They were beloved children by everyone in the family and they took good care of them. They got everything they wanted and I liked buying them new things. “I miss my dad very much. He became this angry and cheerful person I have never seen. She cries most nights before going to bed and misses her sleep routine with the kids. Gracie-Ann was named after his angel and Jayden-Lee was his only grandson. He was their “dad” and it is disastrous to see him like that. “He finds it difficult to talk about them and he does not like looking at photos.” Describing the impact of her children’s deaths on her and her family, Ms. Lucas said: “The man responsible for this took what I had. I do not care about myself, I am an adult who can fight or defend myself, but my children have not been able to do that. If this man was not on that road that day my children would still be here. This impact took my kids away right away. My children could not live their full lives, but he continued to be able to live his own. I know he has children of his own and he can still see them. “My children have left and I know it is not our fault. We honestly thought we did the right thing by pulling over. I feel so angry and I know this would not have happened if he had not been on the road. I know he caused it and he’s only to blame. He should feel exactly what I am going through. I wish he could. “We had so many dreams and plans as a family. We wanted to go to Benidorm, Disneyland Paris, and go on mini family breaks like camping. Even just missing out on basic things like having kids go to farms and see different animals. Every family in the world can do this, but now we can not. “Trying to live my life becomes much more difficult. I struggle to see how my future will go. People told me I could just have another child. If someone was in my position or knew exactly how I felt they would know I could not even think about it. Nothing will ever replace my babies. “The driver of this vehicle took my babies. It’s so upsetting and heartbreaking that my kids are gone and they’re still here, it just seems so unfair. “They were such happy children and they had their whole life ahead of them.”
