Trucker jailed after his lorry overturned

A Peterborough lorry driver who crashed and overturned his vehicle – spilling thousands of Amazon parcels onto the carriageway – has been jailed.

Stanislaw Polak, 63, of Jupiter Avenue, Peterborough, had been travelling eastbound on the A27 in Sussex at around 5.30am on October 9, 2020 when the lorry overturned, blocking both carriageways.

The road was blocked in both directions for 12 hours between Emsworth and Chichester.

Polak sustained serious head injuries and was taken to hospital for treatment, and later discharged. Members of the public stopped to assist at the scene, and shone torches in an attempt to alert any oncoming traffic.

The driver of a gold Renault Scenic was unable to avoid a

collision; her car was written off and she was taken to hospital.

The crash caused significant damage to the central reservation and the road was subsequently closed in both directions to allow for the lorry to be recovered and for highways repairs to be carried out.

After being discharged from hospital, Polak attended

a voluntarily police interview. He was served with a postal requisition to face a charge of dangerous driving and later pleaded guilty in court.

At Lewes Crown Court on Thursday, he was sentenced to a total of four months’ imprisonment, and disqualified from driving for 19 months. He must also take an extended retest.

The court heard how when

asked by a paramedic what happened, Polak said words to the effect of “asleep just for a second”.

Investigating officer, PC Steve Lambeth, of the Sussex Roads Policing Unit, said: “There was a suggestion the collision may have occurred after the driver fell asleep at the wheel. He later denied this, and claimed there was a defect with the vehicle.”

The scene of the accident on the A27 in Sussex, which blocked the road in both directions for 12 hours