A MAN has been jailed after his lorry toppled onto a car, killing the couple inside – while he was distracted by a text message.
Ethan Roberts, 44, of Ings Lane, Immingham, was driving at 50mph in an area with roadworks on the M62 when his lorry began to veer into the inside lane, Richard Clews, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court.
It pushed Mark McHale's Audi into the third lane, facing the wrong way, and the lorry jackknifed, its 19-tonne load toppling onto the car, crushing and killing McHale and his wife Tamsie.
Businessman Mark and Tamsie, a deputy head at a school in County Durham, were on their way to Manchester Airport for a holiday to Cuba.
Judge Geoffrey Marson QC said the hard-working couple were "on their way no doubt to a well-earned holiday".
Roberts tried to blame Mr McHale for the crash and examination of his phone showed no messages at the time concerned – but checks revealed a text had been deleted.
Further records showed that Roberts had received 58 text messages from good friend Helen Chapman over the last three days – all while tachograph records showed he was driving. The last one had arrived about one minute 16 seconds before the collision. He had sent 48 messages to her in return.
"It is clear he was in the habit of both reading and composing text messages while driving and had done so frequently on the day of the collision," said Mr Clews.
"In all probability, the defendant was either reading the message from Helen Chapman or had read it and was in the process of making a reply. There is no other reason for deleting it."
The court heard Roberts was driving from Grimsby to Burnley when the accident happened shortly before 6am.
After the collision he was found by witnesses bleeding in the cab of his vehicle and on the phone to his boss.
Roberts admitted two charges of causing the deaths of Mr and Mrs McHale by dangerous driving on July 25 last year.
He was jailed for five years three months and disqualified from driving for five years.
Sentencing, Judge Marson QC said: "Those who drive HGVs owe a particular responsibility to other road users because of the nature of the vehicle they drive and because the results of dangerous driving can be catastrophic.
"Evidence clearly shows you had a regular habit of reading and composing and sending text messages while driving.
"If ever a case demonstrated the obvious danger of that this is it and the danger in doing that was obvious and it created a grossly avoidable distraction.
"You received a text message very shortly before the collision and you were either reading it or composing a reply when you lost control of your lorry."
The judge said he accepted Roberts had not set out that day to kill or injure anybody and that his remorse was genuine.
But it was a seriously aggravating feature that he was in the habit of texting while driving, he said.
Peter Horgan, for Roberts, told the court he had been driving HGVs for 13 years, doing an average 30,000 miles a year without a problem.
"He accepts on occasions he did make and send text messages."Follow us on Facebook and Twitter
