A picture has been released of a one-year-old girl killed by a drug driver who smashed into her on the pavement.
Zhaoxi Wang died when the 22-month-old and her father Qi Wang were hit by Lee Steven Burford's Renault Clio in Ruislip.
Zhaoxi, known as Xi Xi, was flung into the air from her pushchair by the collision and died in the road of “catastrophic” injuries. Her father suffered a broken arm.
Burford, who had suffered an epileptic fit after taking cocaine, pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and one count of fraud relating to dishonest representations over an epilepsy diagnosis.
MyLondon reports that the 44-year-old had been diagnosed with epilepsy in 2000, but had failed to notify the DVLA of recent seizures in 2017 and 2020 and ignored medical advice not to drive.
Appearing at the Old Bailey, Burford, of Harrow, was jailed for four years and two months for causing death and injury by dangerous driving and fraud, having previously denied one count of manslaughter.
Burford was also disqualified from driving for seven years and one month, and must take a re-test to reacquire his license.
The incident occurred shortly after 4.20pm on October 25, 2020, as Mr Wang walked back from a local park with his daughter and his wife, Sha Zhang.
“It seems very clear that Mr Burford suffered a form of epileptic seizure at a time before the veering of the vehicle on Eastcote Road,” Catherine Pattinson, prosecuting, said.
While he passed breathalyser tests at the roadside, blood samples taken at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital later tested positive for cocaine use.
It was also the expert opinion of a neurologist doctor that on the balance of probabilities, cocaine consumption would have decreased his seizure threshold and exacerbated breakthrough seizures.
Due to a previous driving incident in 2018, Ms Pattinson argued that he “knew the likely consequence of consuming cocaine before getting into a car”.
Because of his medical condition, Burford's license had been revoked in 2000 and 2004 and he had been provided with short-term licenses due to the nature of his seizures.
In 2010, he was granted a full license, and the DVLA were unaware of any incidents of concern until they were informed by the police on October 26 that he had been involved in a fatal collision.
Despite this, he had suffered an epileptic seizure in February 2017 but had failed to notify the board of his condition.
In July of that year, he also sought employment as a driver and denied that he suffered from any heart complaints, diabetes, fits or any other medical infirmity in an employment declaration form.
On the evening of July 31, 2018, he suffered a seizure whilst driving a vehicle which resulted in a non-fatal collision, and he once again failed to inform the DVLA.
On that occasion, he admitted that he had taken two lines of cocaine that evening.
In 2019, he was advised twice by medical practitioners that he should not be driving or taking non-prescription drugs.
Just four months before the fatal collision, he suffered another seizure but failed to inform the DVLA.
In a victim impact statement read aloud by the prosecutor, Zhaoxi’s dad said: “The loss of our one and only child, a little girl called Xi Xi has been the worst thing that has happened to me and my family. It has been absolutely devastating for us.”
He described the “unimaginable pain” of their loss and said that they visit her grave each day to water the flowers while her bedroom has remained the same way as the day she died.
“She was such a joyful spirit, when we had Xi-Xi it was the happiest time of our lives,” he added.
“We were blessed to have such a beautiful child who was taken from us by someone who chose to drive when they shouldn’t have been driving.”
