Lorry driver ‘screamed’ as he found baby thrown from car in 140mph A1 crash and handed him to mum

A mum whose baby was thrown from a car when they were hit by a speeding drunk driver has told a judge: “I’m a broken shell of a woman and a childless mother”. Zackary Blades was killed alongside his aunt Karlene Warner after his mum Shalorna Warner drove to the airport to pick her up in the early hours. Drunk driver Darryl Anderson was three times over the limit and driving at 141mph when he smashed into them.

Today at his sentencing hearing Ms Warner bravely stood in court and recounted the gut-wrenching moment her life changed forever. Eight-month baby Zackary was found by a lorry driver on the opposite side of the carriageway after his car seat was flung from the car. Mum Shalorna said: “I heard a painful scream from the lorry driver crying: ‘Oh no, he’s here – your baby’s here’. “I jumped over to find my baby lying on the edge of the grass of the motorway.

I knew instantly. I had to pick my dead baby up from the side of the road. I hugged him so tight, a hug I will never forget.

Sharlona Warner outside court today (PA)

“No words will surmount the irreparable hole that has been left in my heart and in my life.

Zackary was my rainbow baby – he was the light at the end of a tunnel of a very dark time for me and brought joy, happiness, and laughter into my life. My baby’s future, my future, our life together, has been stolen from me. I won’t ever see him look up and smile at me again.

I won’t have that luxury. Instead, every second of every day I relive that night over and over again in my head, thinking what did my innocent little boy do to deserve this?

Darryl Anderson is jailed for 17 years 3 months (DURHAM CONSTABULARY)

“And for my sister, Karlene, I just have no words. I am so sorry this happened to you.

It’s hard to process something that doesn’t seem real – it just feels like I am living a nightmare. I will feel the ripples of this pain for the rest of my life. I don’t know if I will be able to get through this – I am scarred, I am traumatised, I am petrified to live my life.

The impact of these events will amplify the hard times and taint any good moment I may possibly have, because within my heart lives Zackary and Karlene, and I will never live a normal life again without them.”

Zackary Blades (PA)Karlene Warner (PA)

Addressing Judge Joanne Kidd directly she added: “Your Honour, I stand before you today a broken shell of a woman and a childless mother. But this guilt is not mine to bear – this guilt is owed to the person that caused this infinite agony. I hope the pain of this weighs them down for all eternity.

Nothing will bring my son and my sister back to me. The only way forward for myself is if the defendant faces the same sentence I am facing – life. The irony of it all is that I will never see my loved ones again, but he will.”

Today, Anderson was jailed for 17 years and three months.