Lorry driver in crash that killed eight ‘had stopped in M1 slow lane for 12 minutes’
A TRUCKER accused of killing eight people while over the drink-drive limit had stopped on the inside lane of the M1 for 12 minutes, a court heard yesterday.
Ryszard Masierak, 31, sobbed in the dock as he heard how six men and two women died when the minibus they were travelling in was ‘squashed flat’ into the back of his lorry.
Four more victims, including a five yearold girl who was orphaned, were seriously injured in the worst tragedy on Britain’s roads for nearly 25 years.
Poland-born Masierak had 55mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood, prosecutor Zainab Mohamed told High Wycombe magistrates’ court yesterday. The legal maximum in England and Wales is 35mg.
Masierak appeared in court after the crash near Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, at 3.15am on Saturday. The minibus, travelling southbound, swerved to avoid the lorry but hit another lorry in the middle lane.
Miss Mohamed said: ‘It is the case that the defendant’s vehicle is stationary in lane one of the motorway for approximately 12 minutes.
‘The Ford Transit minibus is driving in the same lane and attempted to get into the other lane to drive around the defendant’s vehicle which had stopped.
‘There is then a collision with a third vehicle and – I think everyone is aware of the consequences of that collision – the defendant is arrested.’
Masierak, of Evesham in Worcestershire, faces eight charges of causing death by dangerous driving, four counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and eight counts of causing death by careless driving while over the limit.
Masierak had his head bowed and hands clasped in front of him as the charges were read out and relayed to him through an interpreter.
The burly lorry driver, who was dressed in a prison-issue grey tracksuit with his sleeves rolled up, was passed a tissue by his lawyer Sarah Powell to dry his eyes.
Masierak did not enter a plea and was remanded in custody. He will appear at Aylesbury Crown Court on September 26. The trucker, who ran his own firm until last year, had recently separated from his wife, friends said, and had been living in his car since they had split up.
A second lorry driver, David Wagstaff, 53, of Stoke-on-Trent, has also been charged over the crash and will appear in court next week.
Among those killed was the minibus driver and owner of Nottingham-based ABC Travels, Cyriac Joseph, 52, who was described as an ‘extraordinary father’. He had been taking a group from India to London, where they were to start a tour of Europe.
Mano Ranjan Panneerselvam, who was part of the group and works for IT company Wipro, is in a coma. His wife Sangeetha was also seriously injured.
His father and an aunt and uncle were killed and his mother Shri Valli Panneerselvam has a fractured hip and leg, her brother told the Times of India.
S Balasubramanian, a cable operator in Kanchipuram, southern India, said Mrs Panneerselvam was in such a state of distress she could not speak coherently.
‘She is still in a state of shock,’ he said. ‘She has lost her husband and two other relatives she was very close to and three others are severely injured.’
Mano Ranjan Panneerselvam’s aunt and uncle were named as Arachelvan and Tamilmani Arunachalam.
Three of the fatalities were also IT workers at Wipro. They were named as Rishi Rajeev Kumar and Vivek Bhaskaran, both 26, and Karthikeyan Ramasubramaniyam Pugalur. It is understood that Mr Ramasubramaniyam’s wife Lav Tiger was also killed, leaving their daughter orphaned.
Friends of the dead paid tribute yesterday. Shanmugapriya Prabu, a friend of Mrs Ramasubramaniyam, said: ‘I will miss her badly.’ A friend of Mr Bhaskaran, Praveen J, said the senior project engineer had moved to Nottingham from Chennai in India in April. He had planned to live in the UK for two years.
Praveen J, who lives in India, said he was a ‘very cool, caring and courageous guy’.
‘Head bowed and hands clasped’