IT’S been seven years since Nicky Pickering lost her 16-year-old daughter Jade in a fatal car crash, but there is not a minute that goes by when she doesn’t think about her beautiful girl.

Jade and Tia Guye, also 16, were both killed when the Ford Focus they were passengers in collided with a 35-seater coach on the A6 Blackrod bypass on September 13, 2009.

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Mrs Pickering, 41, has backed the Lancashire Telegraph’s ‘Stop the Madness’ campaign and warned the region’s danger drivers to change their ways before they ruin more lives.

Mrs Pickering, who lives in Chorley and works as a teaching assistant, said: “We don’t live, we survive.

“We have got three other children who need us. If it wasn’t for them we wouldn’t be here.

“People say it gets easier with time but it doesn’t. It is there constantly.

“There is not one minute of a day that I don’t think about it. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.

“People don’t realise the consequences dangerous driving has until it’s too late. That is why I am supporting the Lancashire Telegraph’s campaign.

“We live on a main road and you only have to look outside for five minutes and there are people speeding or on their mobile phones. They just don’t seem to understand it takes one second and one mistake and you destroy countless lives. Every time they belt up they need to realise they are in charge of a weapon.”

When Jade died she left her mum, dad Daniel, sister Leah, 18 and twin brothers Adam and Liam, ten.

The driver of the Focus, Jordan Clayton, who had turned right despite no right-turn signs into the path of a coach, was cleared by a jury on two counts of causing death by dangerous driving. 

He pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving and was given a community order and two-year driving ban.

Mrs Pickering has called for a total ban on mobile phones in cars and tougher sentences for anybody convicted of dangerous driving.

She said: “I would ban mobile phones completely from cars. It needs to be treated with the same stigma as drink-driving.

“There also needs to be tougher sentences for people convicted of dangerous driving. At the moment it’s almost giving people the go-ahead to go out and kill someone with a car.

“People need to know that they will face a long time in jail. It’s the only way we will stop other families having to go what we are still going through.”