Trucker killed grandmother as he looked at gambling websites on his mobile
A GRANDMOTHER returning from a family holiday was killed in a road crash caused by a lorry driver using his mobile phone.
Joseph Smith, 30, was sending texts and browsing gambling websites sec- onds before his 40-ton truck ploughed into queuing traffic at 43mph.
The crash killed Jeanette Wattmore, 79, who was travelling home after a holiday in St Ives, Cornwall, to celebrate her recovery from a stroke. Just 43 seconds before the smash on the A30 near Bodmin, Cornwall, in May last year, Smith used his phone to organise a holiday to Prague.
Truro Crown Court heard he also sent texts and browsed Google in the minutes before his Scania car transporter smashed into the Vauxhall carrying mother- of- six Mrs Wattmore, her daughter and son-in-law.
Smith, from Gillingham, Kent, was yesterday jailed for 32 months and banned from driving for five years after admitting causing death by dangerous driving.
But Mrs Wattmore’s daughter Susan West said the sentence was ‘ too lenient’ and called for tougher penalties for motorists who kill while using their mobile.
She said: ‘ There is far too much of this going on and they do need to change the law or we’re going to see a lot more people losing their loved ones.’
The case comes after the Daily Mail’s End the Mobile Madness campaign called for the Government to get tough on drivers caught using their mobiles.
Under new laws offenders will be given six points on their licence, creating a ‘two strikes’ policy of an automatic ban if caught twice. Those with less than two years’ driv- ing experience could have their licence revoked if caught once and the on-the-spot fine will rise from £100 to £200.
Sergeant Jane Corkhill said yesterday: ‘This tragic case is sadly becoming more common, with increased opportunities to be distracted while driving.
‘Motorists should take heed from this case, be responsible and put mobile devices where they can’t be reached while driving. The consequences can be devastating and the risk is simply not worth it.’
Mrs West, from Bristol, said: ‘I don’t think the judges take into account what the families have to go through. Once we’ve done this we can get down to dealing with our own personal grief. It has just ripped the family apart.
‘My mother loved her family. If you needed anything, she would help. She loved having fun. If we had a family do she would always be up dancing. She was irreplaceable.’
Judge Robert Linford said no sentence would make up for the family’s loss.
He told Smith: ‘It was a scene of complete carnage and you are responsible for it.
‘All of these lives were needlessly affected, and in the case of Mrs Wattmore needlessly lost, as a result of your decision to do what you did.
‘The family are unsurprisingly devastated. This was a case of dangerous driving leading to the death of one person and the injury of four others. It could, in fact, have been much worse than it was.
‘These are without doubt the most difficult cases a judge has to sentence because there can never be a balance between a lost life on the one hand and your good character on the other.
‘No sentence that I can pass will be seen as adequate by the family of Mrs Wattmore and, of course, no sentence I can pass will bring her back.’
Defence barrister Nigel Hall said Smith had been devastated by his actions and had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
He added: ‘After the incident, he locked himself in his room for days, deep in remorse. That has been the case ever since.’