Lorry driver sent to jail for causing woman’s death in road crash Trucker ‘wasn’t paying attention’

ALORRY driver killed a beautiful and beloved 91-year-old woman as he blindly crashed into stationary traffic on the M58.

Leon Stott, of St David’s Road, Leyland, caused a horrific sixcar smash when he took his eyes off the road for a “considerable” period while using cruise control at 56mph.

Despite clear conditions and a flat carriageway on January 8 last year, the 35-year-old did not notice the queuing traffic which had built up after an earlier fatal collision on the motorway.

Two people were seriously injured in the crashes that followed, as vehicles were shunted as far as 66 metres into the air, across lanes and into the central reservation.

Margaret Harrison, from Orrell, had been on the way to a hospital appointment but was trapped in her car for an hour before she could be freed by emergency workers and then spent a week in agony before she died from her injuries.

Margaret’s daughter told Preston Crown Court that her death had left a huge hole in the family, of which she was a central figure.

Another of the victims, Craig Howroyd, described the injuries which have left him confused, exhausted and unable to pick up his baby son.

After the crash, Stott told police officers: “I’m the idiot who caused it. I wasn’t paying attention, I was fiddling with the temperature gauge.”

Prosecuting, Francis McEntee told the court: “The essence of the prosecution case is that anyone driving and approaching the scene of the RTC should have been aware of the accident.

“The tragedy of this case is that this line of traffic was the consequence of an earlier collision which took the lives of two other people.”

Mr McEntee read from statements from multiple witnesses who had been driving on the same stretch of road and noticed the slowing traffic and emergency vehicles up to three miles before stopping.

David Collier’s statement explained he was checking his mirrors as he slowed down and noticed the lorry appear behind.

He thought the lorry would slow down but it did not and soon his car was shunted onto the second reservation and Mr Collier was trapped.

Mr McEntee also explained that analysis of the HGV’s tachograph revealed Stott was using cruise control at the time of the crash.

He said: “He was travelling at a constant 56mph. The speed of deceleration was far beyond that which could be achieved by braking and the conclusion of that is that it was caused by hitting the stationery vehicles.”

Mrs Harrison suffered multiple fractures in the crash and her injuries also resulted in a collapsed lung. She underwent emergency surgery and spent two days in intensive care and tragically died on January 16, a week after the collision.

In a victim impact statement, her daughter Mrs Peacock described her mum as an independent and active 91-year-old who enjoyed travelling and socialising with friends.

“She was often delighted when people that met her thought she was a lot younger than she was,” she said.

“That was probably because she was young at heart.

“Sadly, she remembered every detail of the crash. She was obviously terrified when she was trapped in her car for an hour, cut free and taken to hospital.”

Mrs Peacock said her mum was in excruciating pain during the hospital stay and that a loss of ability to speak compounded her suffering, amounting to mental torture.

In a statement read into court by Mr McEntee, Mr Howroyd said his injuries had left him in chronic pain and with shortterm memory loss which makes conversations difficult and leaves him relying on his wife to manage his diary,

His exhaustion also results in frustration and anger management problems, while he can’t drink due to the risk of seizures and has endured a loss of smell and an inability to breathe through one nostril.

Most painfully, he is unable to lift his young son or bend down to him.

In Mr Collier’s statement, he said the long term impact of his injuries, which include broken hips and a fractured spine, had forced him to change to a lower paid job, which he was in the process of being laid off from due to lack of work.

Tragically, the crash occurred in traffic built up due to an earlier smash which took the lives of a young pupil and support worker from Pontville School in Ormskirk.

That crash was caused by lorry driver James Majury, who a police investigation eventually found had spent almost his entire journey using his phone to send messages and play games.

Judge Simon Medland QC acknowledged that in this case, there was no suggestion Stott had used his phone or was under the influence of drink and drugs.

Defending, Tom Bradley Watson said that Stott accepted full responsibility and offered no excuses for the devastation he had caused.

Mr Watson said that when Stott was asked about the impact of a prison sentence by the author of a pre-sentence report, he spoke only of the consequences on the victims and their familes.

He said: “He knows that although he will serve that sentence and it will be said that he’ll have his life back, he wants his victims to know he is haunted by this incident of his own making and will be haunted by it for the rest of his life.

Sentencing, Judge Simon Medland QC said: “In any view this case is an utter tragedy from which none have gained and from which many have lost.

“No sentence will ever restore or come close to equating to the life of Margaret Harrison or the good health of Mr Collier or Mr Howroyd.

“Her death is described to me as a totally needless and horrific end to the life of a beautiful person.”

Judge Medland acknowledged that Stott was a “fundamentally decent and hardworking family man” who did not set out to hurt anyone but said he carelessness meant the lorry was effectively being driven blind and caused a “series of catastrophic collisions”.

Stott, who earlier pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and two counts of causing injury by dangerous driving, was sentenced to three years and four months in jail and banned from driving for six years.