Cameron Hughes was ruled a fatal accident after using nitrous oxide

News

by Jesse O’Neill

A British courier, who was filmed inflating a nitrous oxide balloon before driving his truck into a ravine and killing his teenage cousin, was sentenced to nearly eight years in prison on Monday.

A Lancashire policeman said Cameron Hughes, 23, was under the influence of laughing gas and used his phone when he “failed to negotiate” a bend on a motorway north of Manchester in July, sending his Mercedes Sprinter into a 15ft ravine. press release.

Police said Hughes’ passenger and his cousin, Bonnie Barrow, 15, were seriously injured and died the next day. He was relatively unharmed.

Barrow had taken a flight with her cousin from Manchester to have dinner with her family, which had just moved to Great Harwood, according to authorities, who described her as “very likable” and “bubbly.”

Hughes pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison and banned from driving for a further eight years, officials said.

Police released a clip of him behind the wheel inhaling a balloon that officials said was filled with nitrous oxide, which causes dizziness, dissociation, confusion, loss of balance, impaired memory and cognition and weakness in the legs, according to the National Institutes of Health. health.

The video appears to have been filmed from the passenger seat, but it was not clear whether Barrow filmed it.

Before the fateful end of the harrowing trip, police said there were “several close calls with other vehicles,” in which Hughes was speeding, drove into the shoulder, crossed lanes, and bounced his truck off the curb at 60 mph.

“Cameron had one mission that day — to bring Bonnie home safely to us. But he made dangerous choices that led to her death and cost us the opportunity to watch her grow into the beautiful young woman she has become,” her family said in a statement.

“We cherish her memories and the joy she brought us throughout the 15 years she was in our lives. We all miss her very much and would do anything to have her back.