Kentish Express Ashford & District
Driver who caused pile-up by falling asleep sent to jail
A van driver who fell asleep at the wheel and caused a pile-up on the M20 has been jailed.
Stanislaw Wylecial was sentenced to 14 months for the accident which left a woman with devastating injuries. He could now face deportation back to his native Poland because the sentence is more than a year.
Maidstone Crown Court heard Wylecial, 46, who had undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnoea at the time, ploughed into the back of a lorry on an unlit part of the M20 at about 70mph, in October 2015.
Prosecutor Ian Hope told Maidstone Crown Court the lorry driver pulled over while Wylecial’s van ended up in the middle of the motorway.
A second lorry driver had to manoeuvre into the fast lane to get around the wrecked van.
Daniel Martini, who was travel- ling with his fiance Eriselda Zequ in an Audi TT, had to swerve, clipping the vehicle and coming to a rest in front of the van. But the driver of another van couldn’t avoid the obstruction and crashed into the Audi.
Judge Jeremy Carey told Wylecial: “It is remarkable to say the least there were no fatalities. I reach the sure conclusion you fell asleep at the wheel of your vehicle. The duration was short but had devastating consequences.”
Wylecial, a bakery and delivery driver, was banned from driving for four years and seven months.
The father-of-two, from Sevenoaks, denied dangerous driving and four of charges of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, but was convicted. He was sentenced to 14 months for causing serious injury by dangerous driving and six months concurrent for dangerous driving.
Ian Bridge, defending, said Wylecial was very sorry and upset about Miss Zequ’s injuries. She suffered nerve damage in her left leg and her ankle would have to be fused.
Judge Carey said: “Her future is by far the most uncertain. She suffered real trauma. She described herself as looking like an old woman.”
Mr Bridge said Wylecial had not then been diagnosed with sleep apnoea and would not have been aware of the risk he posed, but had since had it treated