A cocaine-fuelled motorist who was driving without a license when he crashed his wife's van, killing his 14-year-old son, has been jailed for 10 years.
Daniel Burba, 31, from Morecambe, had an epileptic fit at the wheel when he crashed the van near Lancaster on 20 April, killing his teenage son Ryan Morgan.
Paramedics found a small bag of the cocaine as they treated the driver at the scene.
The 31-year-old had previously had seizures due to his cocaine abuse and had been told to stop taking the Class A drug.
Robert Altham, Preston Crown Court Judge, told Burba he had taken a "deliberate decision" to get behind the wheel and "disregarded the lives of others".
The court heard how his son Ryan died in "terror" after his dad became unconscious at the wheel.
Ryan tried to take control of the car by grabbing the wheel before it swerved off the M6, crashing into a tree between junctions 33 and 34.
Burba, who had never passed a driving test, was taken to hospital with "relatively minor" cuts and injuries to his ribs.
Blood tests revealed he was four times over the legal drug-drive limit.
In October 2024, Burba was told by a doctor to top taking cocaine after suffering a seizure which lasted up to four minutes, an investigation revealed.
The court heard how that dad's decision to drive was not made impulsively.
"You were uninsured. You shouldn't have been driving", Judge Altham said.
He added that Burba would have been aware that taking cocaine would have made the decision to drive more dangerous.
Ryan "has been denied the vast majority of his life and he was by any measure a remarkable young boy," the judge said.
Ryan's death left his sister with "a hole in my heart which will never be filled," she said in an impact statement.
The family said in a heartbreaking tribute: n a tribute to the teen, his family said: "Ryan, our precious boy. There truly is no one like our Ryan, such a beautiful soul and so far from typical.
"Words can't express how much we have loved and cherished him and how much we always will. The most funny, silly, loving, generous boy, who literally could not stop talking.
"He was always making his little sisters giggle or giving them cuddles when they were sad. He made them their bottles and read them stories at bedtime. He was such a family lad choosing to stay home with us sometimes when his friends wanted him to go out.
"He tried to put on a laddish attitude but it made us laugh because he was so soft, sensitive, kind and lovely. Every time he had pocket money he would go to the shop and buy everyone else treats and forget himself."
