Driver of lorry that killed eight people ‘was on cruise control’

A LORRY driver who killed eight people when he ploughed into a minibus was on a hands-free call with the vehicle on cruise control, a court heard.

David Wagstaff, 54, was driving at 56mph and did not brake or decelerate before smashing into a packed van on the M1 just after 3am on Aug 26 2017.

Cyriac Joseph, the minibus driver, was waiting to go around a stationary HGV, driven by Ryszard Masierak, a Polish national. Mr Joseph and seven of his Indian passengers were killed on the M1 near Milton Keynes as they travelled to London from Nottingham to catch a coach to Disneyland.

Oliver Saxby, prosecuting, told Reading Crown Court it was “an entirely avoidable collision … caused by the dangerous driving of the defendants”.

“In Mr Masierak’s case, under the influence of alcohol, parking up in the slow lane of the M1, an act as flagrant as it was dangerous, what on earth did he think he was doing? And in Mr Wagstaff’s case, on a hands-free call, his lorry on cruise control and he on autopilot, completely failing to notice what was ahead of him in full view for some time, inattention on a gross scale.”

Mr Wagstaff, from Stoke, admits eight charges of causing death by careless driving and four of careless driving. Both men deny eight counts each of causing death by dangerous driving and four each of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

Mr Masierak, of Evesham, Warks, faces a further eight charges of causing death by careless driving while over the alcohol limit. The trial continues.