A mum who caused the death of her two young sons in a head-on crash after knowingly driving with an underinflated tyre has avoided jail.
Amy Sheppard, 29, received a 20-month sentence suspended for two years at Lincoln Crown Court on Friday.
Judge James House KC said the ‘ability to excercise mercy’ and not send Sheppard – a nursery nurse – to prison was part of his judicial functions.
The badly underinflated rear tyre of Sheppard’s Vauxhall Astra caused the car to ‘fishtail’ on a bend and cross into the wrong carriageway, hitting an Audi coming in the opposite direction.
The driver of the Audi, his wife and her brother were all seriously hurt in the crash, and were treated in hospital for life-threatening injuries.
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Sheppard was also seriously hurt, while her sons Louie, eight and Mason Ellis, six, died in the collision, which happened in October 2023. Both boys were restrained in appropriate safety seats in the back her car.
At the sentencing, Judge House praised a motorist, a scooter rider, two nearby residents and others who helped at the scene on the A52 near Sutton-on-Sea, Lincolnshire.
‘For those members of the public to immediately go to the aid of others and be met with the scene they faced showed real courage and compassion and I commend all of them for their selfless actions,’ he said.
Sheppard, of Mumby Road, Huttoft, was driving home within the speed limit at the time of the accident and her car had no other defects.
A driver following behind had noticed her rear tyre was ‘soft’ and had ‘almost expecting something to happen’, the court heard.
Judge House said he accepted Sheppard, a nursery nurse, was ‘an inherently kind and giving’ individual who would have to ‘carry with her for life that her careless actions resulted in the death of her two children’.
He also noted that although the tyre was found to have a pressure of just 5psi, it was likely to have had a higher pressure at the time of the crash.
Sheppard had asked someone to check the tyre a day before the incident, but they had mistakenly tested the pressure of a front tyre, which had previously deflated.
The judge told Sheppard: ‘That miscommunication or misunderstanding between them was to lead to catastrophic consequences.
‘The following day she accepts she was aware there was still a problem with the tyre.
‘What was a normal working and school day ended in an absolute tragedy.’
A ‘non-decision’ to take the car to a petrol station on the day of the accident was careless, the judge told Sheppard, who admitted two counts of causing death by careless driving and three of causing serious injury.
‘Whatever sentence I impose will not alter what has happened,’ the judge said, adding that he was suspending the prison sentence due to the minimal risk of further offending and in the interests of a dependant relative of Sheppard.
Sheppard was also sentenced to a two-year driving ban and instructed to complete 12 months of treatment for mental health issues caused by the trauma of the crash.
She will also have to undertake 35 days of rehabilitation activity.
In a victim impact statement read to the court by prosecutor David Eager, Mason and Louie’s dad, Laurie Ellis, said: ‘I am here today because my two precious boys lost their lives in a car crash.
‘Even now I can hardly believe it is real. They were my pride and joy. They should be here today.
‘Instead I am left with silence, grief and memories that are far too short.’
In his statement, Mr Ellis claimed Sheppard had shown no remorse and that he would never understand or forgive the risk she took that killed their children.
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