A mum and daughter burned to death on their way to school after a van driver who was looking at TikTok and had taken cocaine crashed into them, a court was told.
Luke Flanagan, 28, hit 55-year-old Emma van der Avoird's Peugeot 2008 as she was taking her daughter Khiana, 16, to school at around 8am on November 1 2021, before it burst into flames. Flanagan had not been paying attention to the road while driving his Ford Transit when Mrs van der Avoird's car slowed down in front of him near Renhold in Bedfordshire.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of causing death by dangerous driving and was sentenced at Luton Crown Court on Monday to five years and seven months in prison, Bedfordshire Police said. The court heard Flanagan sustained facial burns after he tried to help the victims in the car, which had been pushed underneath a heavy goods vehicle (HGV).
