M1 fatal crash driver ‘was asleep in slow lane’

A DRIVER involved in a horrific accident on the M1 had stopped his lorry on the inside lane of the motorway and fallen asleep, a court heard yesterday.

Nigel Ogborne, prosecuting, told Milton Keynes magistrates’ court that Ryszard Masierak had been asleep in his lorry for 12 minutes when the crash happened, killing eight people in a minibus.

Mr Masierak has been in custody since the crash, the worst on Britain’s roads for 25 years, took place on Aug 26. Challenging an application for bail, Mr Ogborne said: “We know that the defendant was stationary in lane one… for 12-and-a-half minutes.”

Six men and two women died on the southbound carriageway of the M1 near Newport Pagnell, Bucks, when their minibus, attempting to avoid Mr Masierak’s lorry, collided with another lorry.

He was charged with eight counts of causing death by dangerous driving, four of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and eight of causing death by careless driving while over the prescribed drink-driving limit.

Judge Francis Sheridan refused bail. Mr Masierak, of Evesham, Worcs, will reappear in court alongside the other lorry driver, David Wagstaff, who was granted bail, on Oct 27.

Those who died were Karthikeyan Pugalur Ramasubramanian, 33, and Lavanyalakshmi Seetharaman, 32, from Chennai, India; Subramaniyan Arachelvan, 58, and Tamilmani Arachelvan, 50, from Dehli; Panneerselvam Annamalai, 63, from Chennai, Vivek Baskaran, 26, from Mayiladuthurai, and Rishi Rajeev Kumar, 27, from Kerala.

Cyriac Joseph, 52, from Nottingham, the driver of the minibus, was also killed.