Coked up driver killed my kids in UK's drug-driving epidemic… my little girl begged brother to stay with her as she died

The Sun

5 hours ago

WORN out by the excitement of a Disney Frozen-themed party, four-year-old Gracie-Ann Lucas and her three-year-old brother Jayden-Lee slept peacefully in their car seats.
Belted in tightly by their mum Rhiannon - a stickler for safety - the youngsters were about to be violently robbed of their lives by a cocaine-fuelled driver swerving down the motorway.
17
17
17
Van menace Martin Newman had the Class A drug in his system when he hit the family's car, which had pulled over on the hard shoulder after Gracie-Ann awoke with a bad stomach.
The horror crash three years ago killed both siblings - who became two of the youngest victims of Britain's drug-driving epidemic, which has claimed more than 120 lives in a year.
Shockingly, road deaths related to drug driving have soared by 164 per cent in less than a decade, amid 'cheaper-than-ever' super-strength coke and a lethal new 'hippy crack' trend.
Experts tell The Sun that driving under the influence of drugs has become the 'new drink driving', with business-savvy Albanian gangs pumping the UK with illicit substances.
While the nation's £4billion cocaine trade now offers cheaper, more potent, and more accessible highs than ever before, discarded canisters of 'hippy crack' line our roads.
Young Brits can buy containers of nitrous oxide, also known as 'laughing gas', for under £10 online - with adverts for vape-style candy flavours only fuelling their addiction.
Such substances in themselves can prove deadly to those taking them. But, when combined with driving, they can have devastating consequences for innocent strangers, too.
'He's the one who should have been dead, not my children,' says Rhiannon, who suffered life-changing injuries in the crash that killed her kids in South Wales in February 2022. 'They were so little, and they were so bright, as well.'
Frozen fan Gracie-Ann, who died first, was always with her brother.
And Rhiannon, from Tredegar, Monmouthshire, tells us: 'Jayden-Lee fought for so long [but] his sister was literally calling for him to go with her because they have never been apart.'
Hidden drug-driving epidemic on UK's roads uncovered as victim whose entire family was wiped out demands life sentences
17
Tragic young victims
It comes as another three-year-old recently became a victim of the epidemic after being mowed down and killed by a van driver who had binged on 'at least 20 lines of cocaine'.
Louisa 'Lulu' Palmisano - described as the 'sweetest, kindest and most generous little girl' - was struck by the van in Manchester city centre in February while walking with her parents.
Driver Rawal Rehman - a convicted gang leader who had taken coke and visited two massage parlours in the hours before the crash - cowardly fled the scene in a taxi.
The 36-year-old was jailed for 12 years last month for causing death by dangerous driving.
17
While cocaine was previously known as a drug for 'yuppies' - young, urban professionals with deep pockets - it is now the indulgence of Brits of every age, background and class.
'Cocaine is much more accessible than it ever used to be,' says Professor Ian Hamilton, a top narcotics expert and an associate professor in addiction at the University of York.
'In many ways, I'd say it's nearly as accessible as alcohol.
'The price has come down, but the purity has gone up. If you forget the fact that it's an illegal drug, it actually represents really good value for money.'
Gangsters' dangerous new tactics
Albanian gangsters - around 1,700 of whom are thought to be at large in the UK - are using the same business tactics as major retailers to flog their hauls of cocaine.
'That has been a very deliberate strategy,' Prof Hamilton explains.
'Their point of view, like many legal retailers, is that they'd rather sell a lot and make a little bit of money than sell a little and make a lot of money [on that].
'They're very aware of what's going on in the market, of who the demographic is, how to increase sales, and how to ensure continuity of supply.'
He adds: 'The gangs are interested in their business model.
'I don't think they deliberately go out to kill people, but they don't care whether you're 18 or 80, or whether you're vulnerable in any way.'
Crimelords from Albania have previously used TikTok to advertise £100,000-a-year drug-dealing jobs, with the roles involving the delivery of cocaine across the UK.
And there are more Albanians in Britain's jails than any other foreign nationality, despite the country in south-eastern Europe having a population of just 2.8million.
According to Prof Hamilton, a 'bumper harvest of coca over the last few years from South America' has contributed to both the availability and low price of cocaine.
'When you've got a surplus of something, the price tends to come down,' he says.
And, contrary to past years, the drug is now being taken by as many British women as men.
'Women have caught up with men over the past decade,' says Prof Hamilton.
17
In January last year, Casualty star Amanda Mealing seriously injured nurse Mark Le Sage in a three-car morning collision after she drove her Mini while under the influence of cocaine.
And last November, a mum from Kent was found to be so high on the drug during the school run that other parents had to take her car keys and walk her kids to class.
A magistrate later told Hayley Berry, who had stopped her car in the middle of the street, that her behaviour was "one of the worst examples of drug driving" he'd ever seen.
'Cocaine makes you feel more confident, but it also clouds your judgement,' explains Prof Hamilton. 'You feel as though you're the best driver there's ever been.'
This reckless confidence can cost other, safe drivers - and pedestrians - their lives.
In Lulu's case, a court heard the toddler was holding her mum's hand and wearing a baby harness when the drugged-up Rehman ricocheted off a tram and ploughed into her.
Mum's heartbreak
Like Lulu's mother, Rhiannon, 28, was protective of her 'inseparable' children, Gracie-Ann and Jayden-Lee, telling us: 'I wouldn't leave the house if my kids weren't safe.
'I'd make sure the seatbelts were tightly on them.'
Rhiannon - who suffered a fractured sternum, internal bleeding, slashes to her kidneys, and other injuries in the crash - has gone on to have another child, Summer-Gracie.
'When I found out I was pregnant, I was like, 'How can I be pregnant with all of the injuries I've got?',' says the mum, whose daughter, now two, was named after her big sister.
'When I had Summer-Gracie, I had to go into theatre. I wore the kids' ashes on a necklace, and I could see the two kids either side of me [as I gave birth].'
17
17
In January, a notorious gangster who flooded the UK with cocaine was finally caught and extradited back to Albania after a staggering 27 years on the run.
Dritan Rexhepi, dubbed the 'King of Cocaine', had previously appeared on Scotland Yard's most-wanted list.
And as well as cocaine, Albanian gangsters are enjoying a hefty slice of Britain's cannabis trade - with the Class B drug remaining the nation's most popular illicit substance.
'As I walked home today, I could smell it coming out of all sorts of places,' blasts Michaela Groves MBE, whose niece, Lillian Groves, 14, was killed by a cannabis-fuelled driver.
'It absolutely infuriates me.'
Taking down the gangs
The National Crime Agency recently signed an agreement with Albanian police to tackle the ruthless criminals involved in Britain's cannabis and cocaine markets.
Law enforcement teams launched an operation to disrupt what the NCA called 'Albanian criminality in the UK' in 2023, seizing almost 200,000 cannabis plants across the nation.
The plants had a jaw-dropping street value of between £115million and £130million.
Lillian, a 'homely' girl with a dry sense of humour, was retrieving her brother's football from the road outside her Surrey home when she was hit by speeding motorist John Page.
Though the teenager had checked the road was clear, Michaela, 58, tells us: 'She wasn't aware that someone was going to be speeding and under the influence of drugs.
'The two, hand in hand, are a disaster for anybody.'
Lillian's younger brother, Oliver, later recalled how his sister 'stood and screamed' before being flung into the air by Page, who then ditched the car and made off to a bus stop.
The schoolgirl was pronounced dead in hospital in the early hours of the next day, June 27, 2010 - a date which was, heartbreakingly, her mother Natasha Groves's birthday.
It wasn't until three months later that Lillian's loved ones were told of Page's drug driving.
'We had never contemplated that he might have been on drugs,' says Michaela.
'None of my family have ever taken drugs.
'The first thing we thought was, 'He was probably on his phone so he wasn't looking'.'
It's like me walking out of my house today with a gun in my pocket and saying, 'Well, I'm not going to kill anyone, but I'll take it anyway'
Michaela GrovesAuntie of tragic Lillian
Page, a landscape gardener, was freed from prison after just eight weeks. He hadn't been charged with a drug offence; instead, he'd admitted causing death by careless driving.
In the years that followed, Lillian's grief-stricken family campaigned tirelessly for changes to UK law - something that resulted in drug driving being made a specific offence in 2015.
Police were also given 'drugalysers' to test for cocaine and cannabis at the roadside.
But as the family prepares to mark 15 years without JLS-loving Lillian, the teen's aunt, from Biggin Hill, London, says she's 'frustrated' that so many lives are still being lost.
Drug driving, Michaela says, is the equivalent of 'if I walked out of my house today with a gun in my pocket and said, 'Well, I'm not going to kill anyone, but I'll take it anyway'.'
Road deaths linked to drug driving increased from 47 in 2014 to a massive 124 in 2023, according to an analysis of government data by Direct Line motor insurance.
'Some of Lillian's friends are married now, with children,' adds Michaela, who works as a casual road safety officer, delivering workshops on drink and drug-driving awareness.
'It's nice that they still keep in touch - not because they feel they have to, but because they were friends of hers. What happened to her has impacted them as well.'
Wrecked lives
Former traffic cop John Scruby, now 65, has witnessed first-hand the far-reaching impact that every drug-driving death has - from neighbours, colleagues and extended family members to the paramedics, doctors and nurses who work to save the victim's life.
During his 25 years as an officer, John had to walk up to the homes of drug-driving victims, knowing he was about to 'absolutely wreck' the lives of their unsuspecting loved ones.
'It's the worst feeling in the world,' he tells The Sun. 'But it's a job that has to be done.'
John, a trustee of the UK charity, Campaign Against Drink Driving (CADD), recalls one case where a drug driver smashed into a tree, killing a young mother in the back of the car.
The victim's own mother was at her home with her granddaughter, less than 200 yards away.
The mother, John says, 'had heard the sirens, knew something had happened, but obviously had no idea that her daughter was in the back of the car, battered to pieces and dead.'
He adds: '[Drug driving] has become the new drink driving.
'On the M1, there's not half a mile that I can travel without thinking, 'That happened here, that happened here'. It stays with you forever, it really does.'
17
17
For trainee teacher Summer Mace, the deaths of her mum, sister and stepdad in a horrific head-on crash with a speeding drug driver in 2023 sent her 'whole life tumbling down'.
The victims - Lisa Carter, 49, her husband Paul, 41, and her daughter Jade Mace, 25 - died after their car was struck by a high-powered BMW on the A47, near King's Lynn, Norfolk.
Driver Aurelijus Cielevicius, who had been travelling at 96mph and running red lights, was found to have a cocktail of narcotics, including cannabis and party drug MCAT, in his system.
The 39-year-old Lithuanian was 15 times over the drug-drive limit. Yet he was jailed for just ten and a half years - a sentence Summer, 26, has deemed 'unacceptable'.
'He is a killer, a criminal, he is the person who has destroyed every part of my life,' she says.
'My mum, stepdad and sister meant the world to me.
'The world is such a dull place without them.'
'A car can become a dangerous weapon'
Summer, who now finds every good moment in her life 'bittersweet', adds: 'A car is a weapon and, if you're not in a fit state to handle it, it becomes a dangerous weapon.'
'No one should be allowed to take people's lives away just for a small time of being high.'
In recent years, the punishment for causing death by dangerous driving while under the influence of drugs has risen from a maximum of 14 years in custody to life imprisonment.
Yet John says: 'These sentences need to be dished out. We're still seeing cases where people get three or four months in prison for taking another life through pure selfishness.'
New legislation has also banned the possession of 'hippy crack' to get high.
But John, from a market town in Nottinghamshire, warns nitrous oxide is alarmingly easy to obtain, saying: 'You can have it delivered to your door - £6 to £8, for ten capsules.'
The former officer, who pulled over at the side of the road to speak to us, adds: 'I've just driven six miles this morning… [and I've seen] six canisters at the side of the road.
'I'm talking the big, one-and-a-half-litre canisters of this stuff.'
According to Greater Manchester Police, nitrous oxide - often taken to induce feelings of euphoria or laughing fits - has been 'shown to have a deleterious effect on reaction time'.
The Class C drug can impair drivers' performance, especially when they're faced with the unexpected, such as a child skipping across the road or a vehicle slowing in front of them.
But it is difficult, if not impossible, to trace the substance - because it gives such a short high.
'It's non-traceable,' says John, adding: 'It's out of the system in minutes.'
Last December, a teen driver who inhaled laughing gas behind the wheel of his BMW just seconds before killing his three friends in a 100mph smash was jailed for nine years.
17
17
Thomas Johnson, 19, branded a 'cocky teenage boy' by his victims' families, was filmed sucking in the drug from a balloon before he ploughed into a tree in Marcham, Oxfordshire.
And last month, a teenage girl was jailed after she was caught on CCTV inhaling nitrous oxide while driving, moments before she mowed down a 51-year-old pedestrian.
Louisa Tunstall, 19, left her victim with life-changing injuries after ploughing into her in Wigan, East Lancashire, on May 24, 2024, in a collision that flipped Tunstall's car.
The teen was jailed for 20 months and banned from driving for two years.
And it's not just illegal drugs that can land motorists in trouble.
'If you are found to be misusing prescription drugs and driving, you'll be treated exactly the same as if you woke up that morning and pumped an armful of heroin,' says John.
Nichola Lyes, IAM RoadSmart's Director of Policy and Standards, warns that medicines like benzodiazepines, or 'benzos', and opioids can cause drowsiness and dizziness.
'When getting behind the wheel, remember that you're in charge of handling a two-tonne metal object travelling at speed,' Nicola adds.
Crucial next steps
So, what can be done about the rise in drug-related deaths on Britain's roads?
While some grieving families want offenders' driving licences revoked at the roadside, others have called for a UK-wide road safety strategy - something the Government is working on.
And, though our police forces are conducting roadside tests in 'magnificent' numbers, Michaela claims delays in forensic test results are causing drug-driving cases to be dropped.
'The Crown Prosecution Service has just six months to put the case together,' she says, adding that drug drivers, free to terrorise our roads again, are becoming 'repeat offenders'.
For John, the education of teenagers, of pre-driving age, is a must.
'It needs to be pointed out to them that it's not acceptable, it's not fun, and what the consequences are if you get it wrong,' the ex-traffic cop tells us.
Such consequences take - and destroy - lives.
'I will never be the same,' says Summer, who wants harsher - and consecutive - sentences handed to offenders, driving licences withdrawn for life, and a crackdown on druglords.
'I push myself to get out of bed every day and make my family proud.
'But the pain never stops, it is always there.'
It's an ever-present agony felt by Lillian's mum, Natasha.
'When people say to me, 'How's your sister, [Natasha]?,' I've now got to a point where I don't say, 'Oh yeah, she's wonderful,'' says Michaela.
'Because she's not wonderful, of course she's not. She'll never be wonderful.
'She's got grandchildren now, and they fill her life with something different.
'But she's not wonderful because she pines for the one that she doesn't have.'
If you have been affected by drug or drink driving and would like to speak to someone, call Campaign Against Drink Driving (CADD) at 01924 562 252.