- Tammy Langton, 32, charged after Laura Cooper, 35, died on M25
- Langton’s Nissan Note came to a standstill on motorway in Essex
- Anthony Cheshire, 63, smashed into the stranded car in his Scania R620 lorry
- Langton was cleared of dangerous driving but could still face jail
A woman who ran out of petrol on a motorway knowing the car’s tank would run out of fuel has been jailed for three years for causing the death of a passenger.
Tammy Langton, 33, of Blackheath, London, had been cleared of causing death by dangerous driving earlier this year but was found guilty of causing the death of passenger Laura Cooper, 35, of Leicester (right), who unfortunately was killed in the M25 crash.
The case where Langton has run out of petrol and faced the two charges in court is believed to be the first of its kind.
Langton was found to have excessive amounts of cannabis in her system. She admitted she had the drug in her system but claimed it was from the last time she smoked two days earlier.
The prosecution also claimed that Langton had shared a cannabis joint with her passengers before she left London at lunchtime and another en route to Leicester at Toddington Services on the M1.
Judge Jonathan Seely, sitting at Chelmsford Crown Court, said Langton had ‘deliberately chosen to run out of petrol on a motorway at night’.
He said she thought an emergency organisation such as the AA or RAC ‘would come to sort out the problem’.
He continued: ‘You drove a substantial distance, past a service station and past numerous exits where you could have left the motorway safely.
‘You continued to drive knowing that you were about to run out of petrol and you couldn’t possibly complete your journey. You drove in lane three and were overtaking vehicles at a time when you knew your car was going to run out of petrol on a motorway which is particularly dark and unilluminated in places.’
