Mummy saved me
Haunting words of girl, 5 after mother sacrificed herself in truck crash horror
A GIRL of five told relatives ‘Mummy saved me’ after her mother was killed by a car transporter as she tried to protect her daughter.
Rachael Martin, 29, was walking her two daughters to school when Keira moved in front of the eight-car transporter as the driver made a three-point turn.
Miss Martin died at the scene, while Keira spent two-and-a-half months in hospital recovering from serious injuries to her pelvis and lower spine. The child’s sister, Leah, seven, escaped unharmed.
On Friday, during a hearing in which driver David Farr was spared jail for causing the mother’s death by careless driving, Miss Martin’s father Bill Simpson held wife Susan’s hand for support.
As he read out a victim impact statement to a hushed courtroom before Farr, a former soldier, was sentenced, the grieving father described heading to Birmingham Children’s Hospital after being told of the accident in Stratfordupon-Avon, Warwickshire, in May 2016. He added: ‘On getting there, a police officer informed me of the death of my daughter.
‘The shock to me was overwhelming. But my grief for Rachael had to be suppressed for the sake of little Keira. I went over to Keira and held her hand, and the first thing she said to me was, “Mummy saved me.”’
Leah and Keira now live with the Simpsons in Stratford, Warwick Crown Court heard. Prosecutor Oliver Weetch said Miss Martin, who also lived in the town, tried to push Keira out of the way of the 7.5-tonne truck but was dragged under the wheels. The vehicle had reversed, but the court heard Farr, 51, pulled forward just 0.6 seconds later, without the driver waiting to check his mirrors. The barrister added: ‘Almost certainly seeing what was about to happen, Rachael Martin went after her daughter, trying to pull her back. It may well be that at that moment she forfeited her own life...’
Farr, of Stoke- on-Trent, was handed an 18-week jail term, suspended for two years. He was also banned from driving for 18 months and ordered to pay £2,500 costs.
Sentencing Farr, who had initially denied the charge before changing his plea on Friday, Judge Andrew Lockhart QC said he had ‘no doubt’ the mother’s selfless actions had saved her daughter.
Joseph Hart, defending, said that ‘Miss Martin got close to the lorry without being seen’.