Mother killed at zebra crossing after lorry driver ignores alarm 25-year-old was using mobile phone as a satnav
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been William using Stewart,his mobile25, who phone had as earliera satnav, had failed to secure the heavy stabiliser before setting off with his load of barriers from a music festival.
Despite a warning alarm which could be heard by people he drove past, in his rush to get home he did not notice that the stabiliser arm – which the driver extends from the lorry to stop it tipping over while being loaded – was hanging out by up to 4ft. It struck Natalie Thorpe, 29, as she waited at a pedestrian crossing after finishing work at a dress shop, killing her instantly.
Yesterday, Stewart – who was fired by his previous employer after two accidents and was in his first week in the new job – was jailed for fourand-a-half years for causing death by dangerous driving by a judge who branded him ‘wholly unsuited to have any job which required you to have such responsibility’.
Stewart, an agency driver, was at the wheel of the Ford Iveco lorry on June 4 last year. The court heard he drove off while ignoring a warning alarm that should have alerted him that the three locking mechanisms on the stabiliser arm had not been set in place. As Miss Thorpe, from Urmston, waited at a pedestrian crossing in Altrincham, near Manchester, the stabiliser struck her, causing fatal injuries, before hitting a car which brought the lorry to a stop. The court heard a statement from the victim’s mother describing the moment she had to break the news to Miss Thorpe’s 12-year-old son, Luis. Jacqueline Mason said: ‘It hurt so much to see a little boy devastated. I lay on his bed, cuddling him, trying to console him, looking out of the window at the stars. He said to me, “That’s where Mummy is now, with the stars.” ’
Preston Crown Court heard that a month before the fatal collision, Stewart had been dismissed from his previous job after demolishing a customer’s wall during a delivery and hitting a member of the public’s vehicle and failing to stop.
Sentencing Stewart, Judge Heather Lloyd highlighted the fact he had been using his mobile phone as a satnav earlier in the day. ‘There is no evidence you were doing this at the time of the incident but it provides an insight into your attitude to the road and safe driving,’ she said. ‘I have come to the conclusion you were cutting corners that day, frustrated of being in Cheshire longer than you anticipated.
‘You were so lax in your concentration and behaviour that day you did not notice the crossing or Miss Thorpe and you ignored the alarm constantly beeping.
‘This was no oversight, this was no mechanical failure. No one is to blame but you, and as a result a family is left bereft and a child without his mother.’
Mrs Mason added: ‘Whatever sentence he gets it will never bring my daughter back or Luis’s mummy back – our hurt will continue for life. I just hope he never drives another truck as I don’t want another family to suffer the way my family have suffered.’