A DAD has revealed his torment after his mentally ill wife was allowed to pick their son up before she killed him in an 80mph horror crash.
Zac Roe was travelling in aDS9 driven by mum Barbara Roe when it smashed into aFordTransit van and cattle truck.
The nine-year-old tragically couldn’t be saved and was declared dead at the scene on the A354 at East Woodyates, near Blandford,.
Roe was today jailed for five years after pleading guilty to causing death by dangerous driving.
Judge Robert Pawson said: “She will carry a life sentence, that burden of knowing for the rest of her life that it was her actions that caused the death of her son.”;
Bournemouth Crown heard Roe had moved out of the family home “unexpectedly”; five days before the crash.
Zac’s dad Josh had phoned the , child services and school amid concerns about Roe, who has bipolar, looking after their son after she was previously sectioned but no action was taken.
In a victim impact statement, he said: “I feel so betrayed by the professional services who should have listened to me.”;
On March 25 last year, she picked the youngster up from school in a rental car before visiting her new partner with Zac.
Roe then claimed she was taking her son to Durdle Door and entered the single carriagway.
She tried to overtake the van but dropped back after she was unable to do so, the mum instead began tailgating
When the van entered the left lane after the road turned into a dual carriageway, the court heard both vehicles appeared to “almost race each other”;.
Even when the speed dropped back down to 60mph, both the van and Roe were travelling “significantly in excess of 80mph”; – causing one witness to say it was an “accident waiting to happen”;.
As Roe then moved into the opposite lane to overtake on a blind bend, a cattle truck came roaring towards them – causing the mum to steer into bushes.
But little Zac took the full force of the lorry after the car swerved so that the passenger side faced on the oncoming vehicle.
The lorry driver said he heard an “almighty smack”; and the engine of the mum’s Citoren was found 30 metres away from the site of the crash.
During a police interview two days after the crash, Roe told officers: “Then there was a f***ing massive lorry in front of me.”;
In mitigation, Charles Gabb, defending, said that Roe had been experiencing a “deteriorating mental state”;.
As well as a jail sentence, Roe was also banned from driving for seven-and-a half years at Bournemouth Crown Court.
Judge Pawson said: “The significant victim who is left alive is his father, Josh Roe, who contacted the police, the school and children’s services in the days before the collision.
“He tried to call Mrs Roe’s psychiatrist and that in itself is a clear indication of the decline in Mrs Roe’s state.”;
