A driver who killed a woman he hit on a pedestrian crossing while speeding and not wearing his glasses has been jailed.
Stuart Levy, 37, had lost 50% of the visual field in his left eye after a brain haemorrhage and was blasted for “an utterly dangerous and cavalier attitude”.
He hit Shantelle Kirkup, 29, as she crossed a road with six-year-old son Jaxon.
Husband James was pushing their two-year-old daughter Jemima in a buggy and had crossed the road.
Levy had undertaken another car as he approached the crossing in Darlington, Co Durham.
Richard Bennett, prosecuting, said: “Shantelle had hold of Jaxon’s hand for his safety, that last act of care helped propel Jaxon out of the path of the vehicle.”
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Shantelle, who helped her husband run four businesses, died in hospital and Jaxon suffered a badly broken leg.
Levy had been out to collect his methadone prescription and had drunk his daily dose before the crash last May.
His glasses were broken and later found at his ex-girlfriend’s home, Teesside crown court heard.
Levy, of Darlington, got five years and four months after admitting death and serious injury by dangerous driving. He also got an eight-year ban.
Judge Simon Bourne-Arton QC told him: “You knew full well you shouldn’t be driving without glasses. You chose to ignore that. That was an utterly dangerous and cavalier attitude.”
