Ex-footballer lorry driver jailed for M56 death of couple
A FORMER footballer has been jailed for five years after he killed a couple in a motorway crash while distracted on his phone.
Steven Bennett drove his 10-ton lorry into the back of a car containing Richard and Angela Wong, from Northenden, Manchester, who were returning from a holiday in Wales to celebrate their retirement.
Bennett, 29, who played a handful of games for Barnsley FC, collided with a stationary queue of eight vehicles on the M56 near Warrington, Cheshire, doing about 54mph on Sept 19 2019.
The Toyota Avensis driven by Mrs Wong, 56, was shunted into the other vehicles in the queue, injuring five more people. She was pronounced dead at the scene while her husband, aged 62, died three days later.
Bennett initially told police he had been distracted by a bird flying past, said prosecutors. But examination of his
‘Bennett had a clear view of the traffic ahead of him at least 20 seconds before he hit the stationary traffic’
phone showed that he had been handling it and had plugged and unplugged the charger twice.
Bennett, of Grimethorpe, Barnsley, pleaded guilty last month to two counts of causing death by dangerous driving and was sentenced at Chester Crown Court yesterday. He was also banned from driving for four years and ordered to undertake an extended retest.
The family said the Wongs, who had a son, daughter and two grandchildren, were a “devoted couple” who had been married for 37 years and “touched the hearts and enriched the lives of everyone who knew them”.
Their daughter Charlotte told the court: “I am a different person to the one I was before the day my parents were ripped from my life, my heart and my future. To quantify their loss is like trying to quantify the size of a black hole. It is endless and bleak.
“The pain I feel every day is like carrying a weight that never eases.”
Sgt Andrew Dennison, of Cheshire Police, said: “This collision could have been easily been avoided, Bennett had a clear view of the traffic ahead of him at least 20 seconds before he hit the stationary traffic.”