Lorry drivers face prison over crash that killed eight

Guilty: Ryszard Masierak TWO lorry drivers are facing jail after eight people were killed when their minibus was crushed in a motorway pile-up.

The passengers had been on their way to Disneyland when they died alongside their driver in the early morning crash on the M1 on the August bank holiday weekend last year.

Four other passengers were left seriously injured when the vehicle was forced into and under a lorry which driver Ryszard Masierak had stopped in the slow lane of the motorway.

Minibus driver Cyriac Joseph was waiting with his hazard lights on for the chance to go around Masierak’s lorry when he was hit by another lorry, driven by David Wagstaff.

Wagstaff ploughed into the minibus, which had been taking the passengers to London to catch a coach to Disneyland.

Masierak’s vehicle sat stationary on the motorway for 12 minutes on August 26, despite miles of hard shoulder being available.

The 31-year-old Polish national, of Evesham, Worcestershire, was found guilty on Tuesday of eight counts of causing death by dangerous driving and four counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

Fed Ex driver Wagstaff held his head in his hands after he was cleared of the same charges at Reading Crown Court on Wednesday.

He had already pleaded guilty to eight charges of causing death by careless driving and four counts of careless driving.

Wagstaff, from Stoke, was released on continuing bail.

He will be sentenced alongside Masierak at Aylesbury Crown Court on March 23.