Mother and girl killed as lorry runs red light

A MOTHER was teaching her six-yearold daughter about road safety when both were killed by a lorry on a pedestrian crossing, a court heard.

Shocking CCTV footage showed Zena Jackson, 43, trying to push her child away from the HGV before they disappeared under it.

Lorry driver Neville Fletcher, 55, ran a red light and hit the pedestrians moments after slowing down to perform a sharp left turn.

He admitted causing death by careless driving and was jailed for 14 months.

Judge Jeremy Richardson, QC, described his actions as ‘an appalling mistake with catastrophic consequences’.

The family of mother-of-six Miss Jackson and her daughter Cidalia Mendez-Jackson expressed anger that the sentence was not longer. The maximum jail term for the offence is five years. A man in the public gallery said: ‘He’ll be out in seven months.’ A woman added: ‘We’ve got life.’

The judge said Miss Jackson had been ‘instructing her young daughter how to use the pedestrian crossing’ when the tragedy happened in Hull at 2pm on April 29.

Fletcher, a former army driver who had also driven buses and taxis, had never had an accident in his 35-year career.

Malcolm Galloway, for Fletcher, said he ‘does not understand why he missed that red light’. He made a ‘full and heartfelt apology’ to the family on Fletcher’s behalf, but added: ‘He knows it will make little difference.’

The court heard the mother and daughter had nearly reached the middle of the crossing when they were knocked down. Miss Jackson tried to push her daughter away from the lorry, which was travelling at around 3mph, but neither escaped being hit.

Judge Richardson told Fletcher, of Hull, that his sentence ‘in no way is to be regarded as reflecting the value of the lives of the two people you killed.’

Outside court, Miss Jackson’s 24-year-old daughter Sadie said: ‘We haven’t received justice. Seven months each for my mum and sister isn’t much. No sentence can ever bring them back. We still don’t feel any closure.’

Sergeant Rob Mazingham, of Humberside Police, said: ‘The family simply do not feel the sentence reflects the loss of life.’