Mum killed 3-year-old daughter in car crash while drinking vodka and still high from cocaine

A mother has been jailed for six years after she killed her three-year-old daughter when she crashed her car after downing vodka at the wheel and just hours after taking cocaine.

Alanda Pike had picked her daughter, Louisa, up at 7am on 24 August just hours after she had stopped taking cocaine with her partner the night before.

As the 34-year-old made her way to her mother's house she bought a 20cl bottle of vodka and drunk half of it at the wheel of her car, Bournemouth Crown Court was told.

During the journey Pike crashed her Vauxhall Astra into a Ford Transit van driven by Karen Street near Blandford, Dorset.

Judge Peter Johnson said the death of her daughter was "wholly" Pike's fault after she decided to drive under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

The court heard how Pike, from Shaftesbury, in Dorset, was more than three-and-a-half times the legal drink and drug drive limit before the collision.

She had pulled out of a junction straight into the path of Street's van causing Louisa a serious head injury and causing herself a leg and head injury.

The pair were flown to Southampton General Hospital where Louisa tragically died the next day while Street suffered serious injuries to her hand and arm.

In Pike's car the half-empty bottle of vodka was discovered and in her blood the cocaine by-product benzoylecgonine was found.

The court heard that Pike's blood alcohol level at the time of the crash would have been 284 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood, with the legal limit 80 milligrammes.

Sentencing Johnson said according to the Daily Mail: "This is a tragic case which involves the wholly unnecessary death of a young child. No sentence can ever compensate for the loss of a much-loved human being. No sentence is capable of providing an emotional salve for those suffereing that loss.'

He continued: "You gave no thought to her when you selfishly swigged from the bottle to top up your alcohol level."

An emotional statement by Louisa's father Sam Pike, was read to the court by prosecuter Sadie Rizzo which said: "Louisa was my world. She could always brighten up my day with her devilish laugh and cheeky smile.

"I can't begin to comprehend life without her. Her death has left a massive dark hole in not just my life but my family's too."

The court heard how Pike received a suspended eight-month sentence in 2014 after being caught driving while three-and-a half times over the limit.

Johnson sentenced Pike to six years and four months for causing death by dangerous driving, two years and four months for causing serious injury by dangerous driving to the van driver, four months for driving with excess alcohol and four months for driving with a specified controlled drug.

All sentences are to run concurrently and Pike was also banned from driving for six years and two months.