AN unlicensed driver jailed for 10 years for mowing down two teenagers on a footpath while she was high on drugs has been described by a judge as a "pharmacological nightmare".

Tania Winifred Clark, 36, drove 30 metres along a footpath at Labrador, on the Gold Coast, before her car hit the two schoolmates on February 7 last year, the Supreme Court in Brisbane was told today.

Jye Strong, 16, died at the scene, and his friend, 15-year-old Nathan Sprecak, succumbed to his injuries three days later at Gold Coast Hospital.

Prosecutor Angus Edwards told a packed courtroom today that Clark was running late for meetings with probation and Centrelink officers when she made the fatal decision to overtake another car by driving along the footpath.

The court was told Clark's vehicle popped a tyre when mounting the kerb, then ploughed through piles of rubbish awaiting collection.

She also uprooted and dragged a pedestrian refuge sign before hitting the two boys just outside a convenience store.

When police arrived she blamed the boys, saying they had stepped out onto the road and she had been forced to avoid them by driving on the footpath.

"You don't compensate for that level of stupidity," she told police.

"If that was my child, I'd bloody well give them a hiding from that side of the street to the other."

It wasn't until the day of her trial that she admitted fault and pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter.

The court was told Clark was addicted to narcotics and was high on a cocktail of sedatives and alcohol when the incident occurred.

Some of the prescription drug levels in her system were more than seven times the recommended dosage.

"You were a pharmacological nightmare, yet you were behind the wheel of a car," Justice Glenn Martin said.

Clark has a history of driving offences and has been involved in car accidents while on drugs.

Mr Edwards said Clark's driving had become so bad that her husband would hide the car keys.

Her husband had reported the car stolen on the morning of the fatal accident in the hope police would arrest her and prevent her from harming herself or others.

The boys' families and friends cried with relief when Justice Martin sentenced Clark to 10 years' jail for their manslaughter and declared her a serious violent offender.

She will have to serve 80 per cent of the sentence before she is eligible for parole.

She was also disqualified from driving.

source : http://www.news.com