A DIABETIC driver who killed an Ilkley student was given a four-year jail term after his "cavalier" approach to his condition led to the accident in which she died.

Shaun Gary Handley, 19, ignored repeated warnings that he should check his blood sugar levels before driving, a court heard.

They were too low as he crashed his Citroen Saxo at nearly 70 mph into the pedestrian refuge on Hull Road, York, where Bethany Gale and her boyfriend Thomas Asquith, also of Ilkley, were waiting to cross the eastbound carriageway, Leeds Crown Court heard.

The 20-year-old York University undergraduate died from multiple injuries as she was flung 30 metres down the road. Mr Asquith needed major surgery to his legs.

Judge Jim Spencer QC said: "You have a cavalier attitude to your diabetes. It is clear that you could and you should have checked your blood sugar levels before you got into your car.

"You drove your car without that test when you couldn't be sure of your condition, and you drove it at speed.

"The consequences were catastrophic: one young girl dead, her boyfriend seriously injured and your own life in bits."

The judge said that had Handley been driving slower the crash might not have been fatal.

Handley, of Wheldrake Lane, Elvington, was jailed for four years and banned from driving for five.

He had denied causing Miss Gale's death by dangerous driving, but been convicted after a trial last month (June) at York Crown Court.

His barrister David Bradshaw said a large number of diabetic drivers did not check their blood sugar levels before driving.

Handley had not because he had had a substantial meal shortly before the journey and felt well. He had not had any warning symptoms before the crash that his blood sugar level was low. He claimed it was the first time in ten years of being a diabetic that he had had a diabetic episode without warning symptoms.

Earlier the court was told that Handley did not brake or take any avoiding actions as he went at speed on to the pedestrian crossing.

An investigation at the scene revealed that his car only came to rest after fatally striking Bethany, a metal fence and two lamps posts.

The court heard that a blood sugar check in the ambulance taking Handley to hospital afterwards gave a reading of 2.2 a normal reading would be between four and seven.

Specialist diabetic nurses had given evidence in court that they had warned him to check his blood sugar levels before driving.

Mr Asquith was in court to see Handley sentenced.

Former Ilkley Grammar School pupil Bethany had won a year-long placement with one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies as part of her university degree just weeks before her death.