Summer Mace and father Jason discuss heartbreak after death of Gedney family on A47 outside King’s Lynn
“I never thought I would go away for the night and come back to nothing. They were just gone.”
Those are the words of Summer Mace, whose world collapsed earlier this year when her mother, sister and step-father were killed in an A47 crash so horrendous it left emergency responders requiring emotional support.
Gedney’s Paul Carter, 41, Lisa Carter, 49, and Jade Mace, 25, died immediately after King’s Lynn man Aurelijus Cielevicius at North Runcton on January 15.
The 39-year-old was 15 times the legal limit for crystal meth and had a cocktail of other drugs in his system at the time.
After pleading guilty to three counts of death by dangerous driving, he was sentenced to ten and a half years behind bars – he will likely serve seven – and disqualified from driving for 15 years.
For Summer and her father Jason, who she now lives with in Lynn, their lives were turned upside down. Jason lost his daughter and ex-partner, while Summer had lived with all three victims at their village home in Gedney, at the time.
Summer – who has launched a petition to change the criminal justice system - subsequently lost their three-bedroom house, dogs, cat and chickens.
“We were in such a routine, like families are, and that’s now completely gone,” Summer said.
“He has literally taken my entire life away from me.
“Card shops for me are ridiculously hard because everywhere I turn it’s either ‘mum’, ‘sister’. You don’t tend to get a ‘step-dad’ that much, but if I see it, it knocks me.
“Even just being around people with their mum, their sister, their family, it’s really hard.”
Summer had been on a trip to London with Jade the evening before she was killed, taking in a show and enjoying cocktails.
The following day, Paul and Lisa picked Jade up from Jason’s home before they visited an aunt, went out for a meal and travelled to see Jade’s grandfather. It was while they were driving home from there that Cielevicius, attempting to overtake another vehicle, careered into them at 96mph.
Summer had seen reports of a crash at the time, but thought little of it. It was only the next day, unable to reach her family by phone or on their ‘Crazy Gang’ group chat, that she became worried.
It was not until she was at work that a policeman was able to tell her the horrendous news.
“My heart literally dropped on the floor. I didn’t know how to react,” she said.
“There were so many things going through my head. I didn’t believe it.”
She immediately drove to Jason’s home: “I got out my car and just shook my head. I remember just going over to say ‘it was all three’.”
Jason told this paper: “He’s taken everything away.”
Summer and her father Jason only learned the full story behind their family’s deaths last week.
It had already been described as a horror crash, but they wanted to know “every single thing” about it.
Cielevicius was driving a BMW eastbound along the A47 on the fateful evening when the Vauxhall Mokka being driven by the victims was travelling in the opposite direction.
Just minutes before the collision, the BMW had passed a stationary police vehicle at speed on Hardwick Road in Lynn. The officer was then deployed to the scene of the crash, where Cielevicius had only suffered minor injuries – but why was he so lucky?
Summer and Jason say the main factor was the difference in size between the vehicles. Jason believes Cielevicius’ car weighed around 3.5 tonnes, much heavier than the victims’. He was also travelling 44mph faster than they were.
Witness accounts revealed that when the cars collided, they did so with such force that the victims’ Vauxhall was actually propelled 20 metres backwards. It essentially stopped dead, but their bodies would not have.
Summer said: “A massive thing for me was what happened to my mum, because we’ve learned the injuries and they were literally like a horror story. It’s nightmare stuff.
“When I went to see her I got one glimpse at her and then had to ask for her face to be covered, because it just wasn’t her anymore.”
Cielevicius had not stopped dead, and the fact his car kept travelling is most likely what led to him emerging relatively unscathed.
Summer and Jason also believe the amount of drugs he had taken – he had crystal meth, cannabis and mephedrone present in his system at the time – contributed to him escaping with his life.