Mother-of-two surgeon, 34, who killed woman, 22, in crash while distracted by her children watching YouTube in the back of her Mercedes can keep her job – as she tells tribunal she found it ‘impossible’ to live with the guilt
- Dr Jane Maraka was distracted by her two children while driving her Mercedes
- She crashed into the rear of a Nissan Micra driving by Jasmine Harper 2018
- Ms Harper’s car was forced from the road killing her passenger Jessica Howe
- Dr Maraka was cleared to work by the GMC Fitness to Practice council
A surgeon who caused a fatal motorway smash whilst distracted by her children watching YouTube in the back of her car is to keep her job after confessing she found it ‘impossible’ to live with the guilt of the tragedy.
Mother of two Dr Jane Maraka, 34, accidentally ploughed her Mercedes C260 into the back of another vehicle after apparently failing to spot it in front of her whilst driving along the M11 Southbound near Cambridge.
The crash on December 16, 2018 claimed the life of 22-year old Jessica Howe who was a passenger in the other car and who was on her way home from a Christmas event with work colleagues.
Dr Jane Maraka, who was found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving after she hit a car on the M11 killing its passenger Jessica Howe has been cleared to practice by the General Medical Council
Maraka who worked as a trainee consultant surgeon at Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne operating on children with severe burns or facial deformities was later convicted of causing death by careless driving.
She told police: ‘I had stopped for fuel, my son was watching YouTube on my phone in the back.
‘One minute everything was fine and the next thing I knew I’d hit another car. I saw it rolling in front of me.’
This week at the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, in Manchester Marak faced career ruin but was deemed fit to practise medicine after senior colleagues filed testimonials attesting to her being ‘wracked with guilt’ over the accident.
The tragedy occurred whilst Dr Maraka was nearing the end of a 250 mile journey from her home in Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Bishop Stortford.
Her children, then aged one and three, were watching YouTube clips and playing in the back seats when disaster struck at 1.50pm near junction 12 for Trumpington and Grantchester.
Her car clipped a slower moving Nissan Micra on the passenger side, causing it to overturn and hit a tree on the side of the carriageway. The Nissan driver Jasmine Harper, 22, and Miss Howe were taken to Addenbrooke’s hospital with serious injuries but Miss Howe died the next day.
Traffic officers later said Maraka caused the crash because of ‘driver distraction’ due to ‘use of a mobile phone in the minutes preceding the collision, the presence of young children within her vehicle and the effects of driver fatigue’. It was accepted the doctor was herself not using a mobile phone at the time and was not speeding.
Dr Maraka was a trainee consultant surgeon at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Newscastle-upon-Tyne at the time of the accident. Police claimed she was distracted and fatigued when she hit the Nissan Micra
In January 2020, at Cambridge Crown Court, Maraka was sentenced to eight months imprisonment suspended for a year and was banned from driving for two years.
In a statement read to the Manchester hearing she said of Miss Howe’s family: ‘The devastation and pain is something which has occupied my thoughts since the moment the accident happened and will go with me to my grave.’
Her lawyer Miranda Moore QC told the hearing Maraka undertaken charity work in Uganda and had worked for Australian charity helping children living in Manila in the Philippines. She said: ‘What Dr Maraka has gone through has truly affected her. She has taken from the incident a degree of insight which shows maturity and professionalism.’
In deeming her fit for work, tribunal chairman Lindsay Irvine said: ‘Dr Maraka has demonstrated strong insight into the broader harm that she had caused, and that insight had been consistent. It was obvious during the hearing that the facts of the event continue to cause her distress and she demonstrated genuine heartfelt remorse.
‘Her actions caused the tragic loss of a young woman’s life, however, the Tribunal recognised the efforts made by Dr Maraka in demonstrating insight into her actions to her colleagues in the time elapsed since the incident. It was impressed by substantial evidence of remorse and contrition.’