A British courier who was filmed huffing down a nitrous oxide balloon before driving his van into a ravine and killing his teenage cousin was sentenced to nearly eight years in prison Monday.
Cameron Hughes, 23, was under the influence of laughing gas and using his phone when he “failed to negotiate” a bend on a highway north of Manchester in July, plunging his Mercedes Sprinter van into a ravine 15 feet below, Lancashire Constables said in a press release.
Hughes’ passenger and cousin Bonny Barrow, 15, suffered serious injures and died a day later, police said. He was relatively unharmed.
Barrow had hitched a ride with her cousin from Manchester to have dinner with her family who had just moved to Great Harwood, according to authorities, who called her “much-loved” and “bubbly.”
Hughes pleaded guilty to a charge of causing death by dangerous driving and was sentenced to seven and a half years in jail and banned from driving for another eight years, officials said.
Police released a clip of him behind the wheel inhaling a balloon that officials said was full of nitrous oxide, which causes dizziness, dissociation, disorientation, loss of balance, impaired memory and cognition, and weakness in the legs, according to the National Institutes of Health.
The video appeared to be filmed from the passenger seat, but it was unclear if Barrow had shot it.
Before the fateful end of the harrowing journey, there were “numerous close calls with other vehicles” police said, as Hughes sped, drove in the shoulder, straddled lanes and bounced his van off a curb at 60 mph.
“Cameron had one job that day – to get Bonny home to us safely. But he made dangerous choices that led to her death and cost us the chance to watch her fully blossom in to the beautiful young woman she was becoming,” her family said in a statement.
“We cherish the memories of her and the joy she brought us for the 15 years that she was in our lives. We all miss her so much and would do anything to have her back.”