A MOTHER who crashed her car in a sleep-deprived stupor, killing another driver, has been called a ‘coward’ by her victim’s sons. Beloved Wantage grandmother Pat Robinson, 70, died after Anusha Ranganathan veered head-on into her car on the A338 near East Hanney.
Oxford Crown Court heard today how a passerby rescued Ranganathan’s one-year-old son, who was found crying in the footwell after falling from his car seat, just before the Toyota Avensis burst into flames.
Good Samaritans also freed trapped Mrs Robinson from her Nissan Juke, after both cars ended up smashing into a waterlogged ditch, but the grandmother-of-four died in hospital almost five weeks later.
The victim's son, named in court as Nolan, said 'no words can describe the heartache' his family has endured since the crash, which happened shortly before midday on Monday, June 4, last year.
He said: "The world was a far better place with my mum in it. She was the youngest 70-year-old I knew – she had so much life left in her.
"Her [Ranganathan's] recklessness cost a family a mum, grandma, sister, niece, aunt and, for the hundreds of people who attended her funeral, a friend.
"She had not apologised and only offered one when she came to court – I find this cowardly and shameful."
Ranganathan, 41, of Glebe Gardens in Grove, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison after pleading guilty to causing death by dangerous driving.
Nolan described his mother as an 'amazing, generous, caring person' who had never had an accident in 35 years of driving.
The family suffered a 'hellish nightmare' as his mum battled for her life on a ventilator, he said, before dying at the John Radcliffe Hospital on July 5.
