THE family of a grandmother killed by speeding drivers in Bradford has urged motorists to slow down on the district’s roads to avoid innocent people becoming another “headline in a newspaper”.

Sarah Harrison, whose mum Mary Byrne, 51, died in April 2013 when she was thrown from a minicab hit by a car going at more than 60mph, was speaking as police revealed that a crackdown on danger drivers had snared its 5,000th motorist.

Mrs Harrison gave her family’s backing to the Telegraph & Argus Stop the Danger Drivers campaign, and said: “I am doing this because I don’t want somebody else to become a memory, to become a headline in a newspaper.

“My twins associated the T&A with their nanna for ages. We used to go in a shop and they would see the T&A and say ‘nanna’.”

She added: “Everytime I read these stories in the paper, I am in disbelief that it is still happening so much. And it is only going to get worse.

“It is like it has become a trend for this age group of 17 to 25 doing this. It is a trend that needs to stop, something has to be done now.

“The stats are there. There are more deaths by this age group driving high-powered cars. They cannot control them. They should not be able to drive these cars.

“My first car was a 1.1-litre Rover. I never thought about speeding.

“How are they getting insured on these cars – if they are even insured?

“It just angers me so much. It is getting so common.

“And it scares me – I am bringing young children up.”

Sarah said education of young people was important, and added: “When you pass a motorbike test, you are graded and have to build up before you can ride a Harley Davidson, or whatever.

“Why could this rule not apply to cars? Something has to change.

“It is getting that across to them that they can cause that devastation, to either the family or to one of them in the car.”

“It is getting that point across. You are driving your car at high speed. How quick do you get over killing someone? The family never get over that.

“When I read about all these others, I think how quite easily they could have collided with another innocent person. Why should someone have to have that knock on the door, to have someone else take a family member’s life away from you?

“It is so wrong and it is like every other week in the papers some dangerous driver has done this. It isn’t fair.”

Mrs Harrison also called for tougher sentences for dangerous drivers, especially where speeding and death were involved.

“The punishment they get is not enough,” she said. “I think, if speed is a factor – like it is most of the time – then it should be manslaughter, not death by dangerous driving.

“That is the only time the change will come – if tougher sentences are passed. They might think twice then.

“There is too much power for the wrong people.

“The ones who killed my mum will be out early next year. It is nothing at all.

“After a year of them being locked up, they were getting day release.

“It is nothing. The heartache that we have to go through and struggle with, and they get that. It is really hard.”

She added: “They will only be in their 20s. They can start a family and have grandchildren. They can rebuild their lives, whereas ours have been totally turned upside down.”

Of the crash in Mandale Road, Horton Bank Top, which killed her mum, Mrs Harrison said: “It stills seems like yesterday. I walked round to the scene not knowing it was my mum. I still remember a family friend saying there had been an incident round the corner.

“I saw the police cordon, then I came back home. I kept ringing my mum to see where she was. Her friend Linda said mum had got a taxi.

“I asked my husband to go and check if it was a taxi involved. I had a sick feeling in my stomach. I went round and saw a line of taxis.

“I knew then it was my mum.

“I said to a policeman that I wanted to go to my mum to be with her, but he kept saying ‘you need to stay here’.

“I shouted to a neighbour of my mum I knew, but she just looked at me and turned away. She had been one of the first ones out to my mum.”

Thomas Healey, of Brow Lane, Clayton, was sentenced at Bradford Crown Court to six years, and Joseph Robinson, of Westminster Gardens, Clayton, was imprisoned for five years and three months by Judge John Potter for causing Mary’s death.

They had been racing high-powered cars at the time of the collision.

Mrs Harrison said: “I only ever had happy memories of Mandale Road, growing up on there.

“Them people took all them happy memories and turned them into the worst memory ever.”

Sarah said her grandparents – Mary’s parents – had not been the same since their daughter’s death.

She added: “The people responsible don’t see that. They don’t see the effect on our everyday lives.

“There are birthdays, christenings, anniversaries – all that everyday stuff.

“It is getting through everyday stuff like that. My house is up for sale because it is a constant reminder.

“I can still see those cars on Mandale Road and the police, fire engines and the ambulance.

“I spoke to my mum every day. She would constantly be here or on the phone. To go from that to nothing is awful. And then them to get day release in a year – it is a total mockery.”

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