Please change the law
Schoolgirl Fraya Cunningham lies fighting for life after a horrific head- on car crash with a drink-driver that killed her mum.
The 12-year-old wants everyone to see this heartrending picture of herself in a 10-day coma with multiple fractures to her face, arms ribs and spine – as she today calls on the Government to ban drivers from drinking at all.
Fraya, whose dad Kris is from Cupar, Fife, had her world torn apart by serial drink- drive offender Adam White last January. He was twice the legal limit when his van ploughed head-on into her mum Kate’s car at 73mph as he overtook a truck on a single carriageway.
Kate’s Peugeot was catapulted into the air and landed upside down, killing her and leaving passengers Fraya and her little brother Zackeri, then eight, in intensive care.
And even as the two heartbroken children battled back from their lifechanging injuries while coping with grief over the loss of their mum, White, 38, was again stopped for drink-driving
It was only following his conviction for that incident – five months after the fatal crash – that police charged him over 46-year- old Kate’s death.
Now he is serving just nine years in jail – and could be out in half that time, while the Cunningham family face a life sentence of grief.
Fraya said: “I want the world to know what a drink-driver has done to me, what kind of damage drink- drivers cause. No one should drink and drive.”
Kris, 37, added: “If pictures of Fraya’s injuries save just two people then that’s a positive. I was told she had a 10 per cent chance of survival.
“To see your daughter lying there with more parts of her body broken than fixed is something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. Her stomach was left open for eight days, her arteries had ripped.”
Kris said his family will never get over the loss of Kate. “White has destroyed everybody who knew Kate,” he said. “She was the most loving person and the best mother. She deserved more than that.
“The laws must change to no alcohol for drivers. A lcohol affects everybody differently.”
The 0.8 per cent maximum blood alcohol content limit in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is one of the most lax in the world and the highest in Europe.
Russia, Romania and Pakistan all ban motorists consuming any alcohol.
In 2017 – the latest figures available – deaths due to drink- driving here hit an eight-year high, reaching up to 270 – the highest since 2009.
It was a miracle both Fraya and Zackeri survived the crash near Crowland,
Lincolnshire, in January last year. Kris, who lives in Peterborough, was told if the car had rolled just a little further Zackeri’s neck would have been snapped and Fraya would have been crushed to death.
Zackeri was left with a fractured neck and Fraya was put in an induced coma because of internal bleeding and a suspected brain bleed. Kris was told she suffered heart failure and had “died” several times in the ambulance before reaching intensive care.
He said: “The first thought in my mindd was how am I going too tell my little boy that not only his mother’sother’s dead, butt his sister’s dead.”ad.”
He t ookok photos of his little girl to prepare visiting relatives for the shock of seeing her injuries.
Kris said: “We were taking it hour by hour, as we thought we would lose her. You can’t describe what it feels like to look at your daughter there, with plasters on her eyes to stop them drying up.
“There was nothing there. They had to drill into her head to release pressure on her brain.”
When Zackeri came out of intensive care, he wanted to see his sister. He was shocked.
Kris said: “Until Fraya started showing signs of coming out of her coma, Zackeri hardly said a word at all. He’s suffered a lot with guilt, seeing his sister with all these broken bones and plaster casts.”
Fraya was in Peterborough City Hospital for eight weeks and needed a wheelchair for many months after her discharge. She will be scarred for life.
Zackeri was in a brace for six weeks and can’t play any sport.
Meanwhile, dad-of-six White of Spalding,
Lincolnshire, had been taken to hospital with leg injuries after the crash. At first he told police he had no memory of the accident but that he was doing Dry January so he couldn’t have been drunk.
Then he later said he’d drunk a pint of cider before the crash.
White had already forced a car to veer off the road before he hit Kate’s car, causing injuries to the driver.
In June, he was stopped by police for drink- driving and convicted of the offence in November. It wasn’t until December that he was charged in connection with Kate’s death.
Kris said: “Ultimately this delay could have cost another life. I think everybody is very, very lucky that it didn’t.”
Last week, White admitted to causing death by dangerous driving and three counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving at Peterborough Crown Court.
His string of previous convictions between 2008 and 2019 included four drink- driving charges and three of driving whi le disqualified and uninsured.
The serial offender had also previously admitted failing to stop at an accident, failing to provide a specimen and aggravated vehicle taking.
Judge Matthew Lowe told the court he would have sentenced White to 13 years in prison if had he denied the charges, but his guilty plea meant it had to be knocked down to nine years.
The maximum jail term for causing death by dangerous driving is 14 years. White was also given a 10-year driving ban to begin after his release and he will have to take a driving test before being allowed back on the road. Speaking after the case, Sergeant Mark Dollard of the Serious Collision Investigation Unit, said: “It is beyond belief that in 2020 we still have to talk about the dangers of drink driving. Doing so truly shatters lives and this heartbreaking case is the most recent example of that.”
Whi te has never explained why he drove the way he did on that day anda his nine-year sentence hasha left Kris devastated. He branded it “pathetic” and no justice for the death of his wife and injuries to his children.
Kris added: “We are now paying the price for what he did for the rest of our lives. You can’t move on from it because there’s no closure there.”
Only a month ago, road safety charity Brake urged the Government to introduce a zero-tolerance alcohol limit for drivers.
Joshua Harris, director of campaigns, said: “Our current drink- drive limit gives a false impression that it is acceptable to mix alcohol and driving. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
“Decisive action is needed to end this blight on our roads and prevent the needless loss of life.
“A zero-tolerance drink-drive limit is a proven effective solution, making clear to drivers that not a drop of alcohol is safe.”