A VAN driver caused the death of a “valued and treasured member of the community” when he fell asleep at the wheel, a court heard.

Susan May, 65, was on her way to the airport for a Swiss holiday with her close friend Pauline Rayne, 71, when she died, said Dan Cordey, prosecuting.

Mrs Rayne told police she saw the bright lights of Matthew Allan Meara’s van “drifting over to our side of the road”.

Mr Cordey said as Meara dozed at the wheel, his work vehicle crashed into Mrs May’s Ford Focus on the A59 near Moor Monkton at 3.10am .

Mrs May died at the scene and Mrs Rayne suffered spinal and pelvis injuries.

“To think my friend was killed at the side of me through no fault of hers,” Mrs Rayne said in a personal statement. “I am struggling to come to terms with that. I feel I should not be here.”

Meara was driving from north of Newcastle to Selby when he fell asleep at the wheel early on October 9, 2018, said Mr Cordey.

CCTV from the McDonald’s where he had stopped for food and drink en route showed him yawning and stretching a number of times.

He had worked an 18-hour shift five days earlier, had finished a 13-hour shift at 6am the previous day and had slept for no more than three-and-a-half hours at a time before starting work again at 7pm.

The court was heard that he had a previous conviction for drink driving and had served an unconnected prison sentence for perverting the course of justice. 

Meara cried in the dock as he heard Mrs May’s family describe she had been looking forward to becoming a grandmother in two months time.

She had been closely involved in many village organisations and activities in Strensall where she lived, and in Caythorpe, Lincolnshire, her previous home village.

“He would do anything to change what happened,” Meara's barrister Fiona Clancy said. “His remorse is absolute.”

“He cannot forgive himself at present, for the tragedy he has caused.”

The Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, told Meara: “The people of Strensall and the neighbourhood have lost a valued and treasured member of their community”.

Mrs Rayne was in court, as was one of Mrs May’s daughters, to hear Meara, 39, of Jubilee Street North, Halifax, plead guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

Meara was jailed for 32 months and banned from driving for 40 months. He must take an extended driving test before driving again.

“You are a hard working and decent family man,” the judge told him at York Crown Court, sitting in Leeds.

Mr Cordey said a police collision investigator had concluded that Mrs May was driving correctly and had tried to avoid the oncoming van.

Both vehicles were travelling below the speed limit.

Meara worked for a traffic management company setting up road diversions so that Network Rail workmen could carry out work.

When he fell asleep his vehicle had kept steering straight on instead of going round a sweeping left hand bend.

Mrs Rayne has made a physical recovery, but both she and members of Mrs May’s family have been psychologically affected by the collision.

  • This story has been amended to correct the address of Mrs May who lived in lived in Caythorpe, Lincolnshire, before moving to Strensall, and not Cawood as reported. We apologise for the error.