Seven-year-old Elsie Gascoigne was heading home from a shopping trip with her family when delivery driver Veselin Dudenski, 39, performed a dangerous overtake causing a head-on collision
A devastated mum says her world was “destroyed” after her seven-year-old daughter was killed in a horrific crash caused by a delivery driver who performed a dangerous overtake on a busy road.
Elsie Gascoigne had been heading home from a shopping trip with her family when Veselin Dudenski, 39, pulled out to overtake in a hidden dip on the B1202 in Lincolnshire on January 3 this year. Elsie suffered a broken neck and tragically died the following day. In a heartbreaking victim impact statement read out in court, her mum said: “That day destroyed our lives and everything we were as a family.”
She described Elsie as a little girl who “loved animals, especially horses and dreamed of owning her own white horse,” adding: “We will never recover from this. Our daughter was seven years old, full of love, light and laughter, and she is gone forever.”
Dudenski had already overtaken a Ford Ranger that day before attempting a second, reckless pass. The driver of the Ford Ranger said the first overtake was safe but described the second pass as “silly,” the court heard. A witness who noticed Elsie in the back of the Kia confronted him afterwards, telling him “you killed a kid.”
Prosecutor Claire Holmes said clear road signs and markings warned of the dip, adding: “Either Dudenski paid insignificant attention and did not see the warnings or he saw them and ignored them.”
Elsie’s father tried to swerve, but couldn’t avoid the head-on impact. He was left with a permanent disability to his elbow and now suffers nightmares and flashbacks.
Dudenski, a sub-contracted delivery driver of Cherry Avenue, Branston, admitted causing death by dangerous driving. His barrister, Mr Myatt, said he had been a professional driver for 17 years without any endorsements, and was engaged with a young son.
Judge Sjolin Knight said she accepted that Dudenski was unaware of the dip, which meant his dangerous driving did not fall into the highest sentencing category, but told him: “You were tragically wrong about that. In your interview you said you waited for a few seconds, but as I have found that simply can not be true.” She added that the manner of his driving showed a “lack of patience”.
Dudenski was sentenced to six years in prison for the offence of causing death by dangerous driving, with a concurrent sentence of 22 months imprisonment for causing serious injury to Mr Gascoigne. He was also banned from driving for eight years and must take an automatic retest.
Dudenski has permanent settled status in the UK, the court heard, but he is now liable for automatic deportation.
