Judge in fatal crash case urges drivers never to use phone

A JUDGE has warned people not to use their phone at the wheel – even handsfree – as he jailed two lorry drivers for a crash that killed eight people.

Ryszard Masierak, 31, was yesterday jailed for 14 years while David Wagstaff, 54, a Fedex driver, was jailed for three years and four months at Aylesbury Crown Court for the collision on the M1, near Newport Pagnell, Bucks, in the early hours of Aug 26 last year.

Six men and two women died and four others were seriously injured when their minibus was crushed between the two lorries.

Masierak had come to a stop in the slow lane while twice the legal alcohol limit. Wagstaff was on cruise control and chatting on his phone when he hit the back of the minibus at 56mph, forcing it under Masierak’s lorry.

Judge Francis Sheridan acknowledged Wagstaff had not broken the law around using a phone at the wheel as he had been using a blue tooth headset, but added: “It would be wrong of me not to take the opportunity to urge the public to download the app that deactivates your phone when on the move.”