Widow calls for lifetime ban for killer drivers

MOTORIST PLOUGHED INTO TWO CYCLISTS, KILLING ONE AND SERIOUSLY INJURING THE OTHER

- JANE HAYNES

DIANE GALL'S eyes sparkle as she recalls how husband Martyn, a dad to two teenage daughters, embraced the colour pink with abandon.

Flashes of his favourite hue adorned his cycling kit, including the pink rubber overshoes he pulled on that fine November morning before heading out into the Worcestershire countryside for a Saturday bike ride with pal and fellow cycling club member James Middleton.

The pair were enjoying a lung-busting ride along a route they had taken many times before, both of them careful and expert cyclists.

They were not long into their journey when they turned onto the A441 Alvechurch bypass.

Also on the road that morning was motorist Sania Shabbir in her VW Golf, on the final section of a long drive home from a night shift at an Amazon depot.

Analysis of her phone later revealed she had accessed multiple applications along the way, including YouTube, Instagram and WhatsApp.

At 7.25am she had taken and sent a photo from her driving seat showing her dashboard and a dual carriageway ahead. The speedo was showing 67mph.

Soon after, she ploughed into the pair of cyclists, apparently without seeing them.

Martyn died almost instantly. James sustained life-changing injuries.

It was a shocking, life-changing split second that had devastating consequences.

Yet Martyn’s killer is already out of jail, deemed to have served enough of her four-and-a-half year jail term to be free. Soon she will be allowed back behind the wheel. In the eyes of the law, she will have served her time.

And for Diane, that is a reality that she finds especially hard to stomach.

“This driver destroyed our family. She did not intend to go out and kill Martyn on that day, but she was using her phone, and if you're not driving up to a decent standard and something happens then you need to face consequences that last your whole life, just as we are facing.

"We haven't got a second chance.