Driver who took his eyes off road killed pensioner
LORRY DRIVER IN CRUISE CONTROL PLOUGHED INTO CARS
A DISTRACTED lorry driver killed a pensioner while fiddling with the temperature and radio controls inside his vehicle.
Leon Stott ploughed into a row of stationary cars at 56mph after taking his eyes off the road for a ‘considerable’ period while using cruise control.
Margaret Harrison, 91, from Wigan, died from her injuries a week after the horror crash on the M58 in Lancashire last year.
Three others were also left seriously injured as vehicles were shunted as far as 66 metres into the air, across lanes and into the central reservation.
Stott, 35, was jailed for three years and four months at Preston Crown Court yesterday.
After the crash, he told police officers: “I’m the idiot who caused it. I wasn’t paying attention, I was fiddling with the temperature gauge.”
The tragic incident happened about an hour after another fatal collision on the same motorway resulted in the deaths of Radcliffe teenager Joe Cairns and Anne Kerr.
While the first incident was being investigated, a partial road closure had been put place between junction 3 and junction 4, and a 50mph speed limit had been introduced.
After entering the M58 at Orrell, Stott drove his lorry along on the westbound carriageway and after setting the cruise control at 56mph, took his eyes off the road.
As he adjusted the heat ventilation and radio controls in his HGV, he failed to notice the 50mph speed warnings signs as well as the standing traffic ahead.
His lorry ploughed into the back of a Ford Transit van which in turn went into the back of Mrs Harrison’s Ford Fiesta.
The impact then shoved the Fiesta into the back of an Audi A6.
The Transit driver, a 54-year-old man from Golbourne, suffered serious back and chest injuries, with the passenger, a 51-year-old man from Radcliffe, receiving a cut to his head. The court heard that Mrs Harrison, from Orrell in Wigan, was left trapped in her vehicle for an hour before she could be freed by emergency workers. She suffered multiple fractures in the crash and her injuries also resulted in a collapsed lung. She underwent emergency surgery and spent two days in inten
sive care but tragically died on January 16, a week after the collision. Mrs Harrison’s daughter told the court that her death had left a huge hole in the family, of which she was a central figure.
In a victim impact statement, she described her mum as an independent and active 91-yearold who enjoyed travelling and socialising with friends.
Another of the victims, Craig Howroyd, described the injuries he suffered, which have left him confused, exhausted and unable to pick up his baby son.
Stott, of St David’s Road, Leyland, pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving back in July.
Defending, Tom Bradley Watson said that Stott accepted full responsibility.
Sentencing, Judge Simon Medland QC acknowledged that Stott was a ‘fundamentally decent and hardworking family man’ who did not set out to hurt anyone but said he carelessness meant the lorry was effectively being driven blind and caused a ‘series of catastrophic collisions’.
This case is an utter tragedy from which none have gained and many have lost Judge Simon Medland QC