Lorry driver killed woman, 91, in horror crash while fiddling with his radio
A lorry driver who killed a pensioner and severely injured two men while distracted has been jailed for more than three years.
Leon Stott, 35, ploughed into a row of stationary cars at 56mph after taking his eyes off the road for a ‘considerable’ period while using cruise control on the M58 in Lancashire in January 2019.
He had been fiddling with the temperature and radio controls inside his vehicle.
Margaret Harrison, 91, died from her injuries a week after the horror crash and two other men are still suffering effects from the accident today.
The pensioner had been on the way to a hospital appointment in her Ford Fiesta at the time.
In an interview, Stott told officers: ‘I wasn’t paying enough attention, I was fiddling with the temperature gauge.’
The pile-up happened just after 10am on January 8 2019, in queuing traffic on the M58, following a previous collision around an hour before at junction 3 that killed two people.
A partial road closure had been put place between junction 3 and junction 4, and a 50mph speed limit had been introduced.
However, after entering the M58 at Orrell, near Wigan, Stott drove his lorry along on the westbound carriageway in cruise control at 56mph and took his eyes off the road.
His lorry ploughed into the back of a Ford Transit van which then, in turn, went into the back of a Ford Fiesta, causing Mrs Harrison serious head, chest and leg injuries.
Both her lungs were collapsed, she had an open fracture of her upper arm and shoulder, other arms fracture, five broken ribs and a lumbar vertebrae fracture.
Her hip, both legs and her ankle were broken.
She had extensive surgery on January 8 but tragically died on January 16 of pneumonia and her injuries sustained in the collision.
Stott previously pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving in July.
He was sentenced to three years and four months in prison at Preston Crown Court yesterday.
Chief Inspector Sue Bushell, of Lancashire Police, said after sentencing: ‘There are no winners in this case as not only does Stott, who admitted what he’d done straightaway, have to live with the fact his irresponsible actions caused the death of Margaret Harrison, there is also the lasting impact on those who were left injured.
‘One of the men affected suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and has struggled to get back into a vehicle, another has not been able to work in the same way as before and suffers with an on-going back injury.’
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