Safe Speed Forums

"Robert Murray, 51, of Wrockwardine Wood, Telford, is charged with causing death by dangerous driving.

He told a jury how he felt a bump, then saw in his mirror the underside of a Renault Clio as it landed upright.

Rebecca Casterton, 13, and Lauren Brooks, 12, died on the A38 in Clay Mills in Staffordshire last January.

The 51-year-old father told Stafford Crown Court that he had earlier made a call to his wife on his hands-free telephone, but was watching where he was going.

He said before moving into the offside lane, he checked his rear view mirror, indicated, looked again and, still straddling the white lines, felt a judder.

Mr Murray said: "I was devastated. I thought it was a safe manoeuvre.

"I was not on a mobile phone at any stage when I was overtaking."

The prosecution said the Clio was spun out of control into the central reservation and landed upside down in the opposite carriageway where it was hit by a Mercedes car.

In a statement to the jury, Mrs Irene Corrie, Lauren's mother, who was driving the Clio, said she was aware of Murray's lorry coming alongside her.

"Then it seemed to go backwards and I then felt a bang at the back of my car. I knew the lorry had hit us."

***

"Judge Paul Glenn said he accepted Murray had not being making a call at the time of the accident.

But he added that he was satisfied his attention was diverted with regard to the phone."

The BBC video says that the hand-free phone call had finished two minutes before the crash and that the lorry hit the rear of the car during a lane change.

said she was aware of Murray's lorry coming alongside her.

"Then it seemed to go backwards and I then felt a bang at the back of my car. I knew the lorry had hit us."

Jail for 'mobile phone' lorryman who killed two girls

A lorry driver who killed two Staffordshire schoolgirls in a horrific accident moments after finishing a mobile phone call has been jailed for four-and-a-half years.

Robert Murray was found guilty in November of two counts of causing death by dangerous driving after a five-day trial at Stafford Crown Court.

The trial was told that he was using a mobile without a hands-free set shortly before the crash which claimed the lives of Rebecca Casterton, 13, of Barton-under-Needwood, and 12-year-old Lauren Brooks, from Burton.

The best friends, both pupils at John Taylor High School in Barton-under-Needwood, were rear seat passengers in the Clio, which was struck by Murray's lorry on the A38 near Burton-upon-Trent in January last year.

Sentencing the 51-year-old, of Summer Crescent, Wrockwardine Wood, Telford, Judge Paul Glenn said he was satisfied that the haulier failed to spot the Renault Clio the girls were travelling in because he was putting the phone on charge.

Murray was also banned from driving for two years.

Passing sentence, Judge Glenn said no punishment could begin to compensate the girls' families for the catastrophic loss of life caused by Murray.

The judge told the trucker: "At all the material times that Clio was in front of you driving perfectly normally and yet you plainly did not see it even though you gained on it and actually got alongside it.

"I am entirely satisfied the reason for that failure is that you were distracted by your relatively recently acquired mobile phone.

"There can't be any other logical explanation for what occurred."

In a statement, the girls' families said: "Rebecca and Lauren were bubbly, bright and full of life, loved by everyone who knew them and a credit to their families.

"Every day we still see people holding and using their mobile phones while driving.

"Our appeal is for people to think long and hard of the potential life-changing consequences of their actions and never use their telephones while driving."

It's also a little strange that the lorry (limited to 56mph) was starting to undertake the Clio. And it's also strange that the Clio driver said the lorry was alongside, then going backwards. This is more inclined to imply that the lorry 'aborted the undertake' to pull out behind the Clio - in that case we have a judgement rather than an observation error.

He said before moving into the offside lane, he checked his rear view mirror, indicated, looked again and, still straddling the white lines, felt a judder.

Mr Murray said: "I was devastated. I thought it was a safe manoeuvre.

"I was not on a mobile phone at any stage when I was overtaking."

In a RHD artic tractor, how easy is it to completely lose sight of a car in lane to left?

My concern is that in this country we have a tabloid mentality that see's big lorries and eviil and guilty and mums in cars as pure and good, I hope the law is blind.

This was posted

Justice is blind like a hawk. Unfortunately the bold statement is too true.

This was posted after the strong winds last week in which, sadly, a female driver from Manchester lost her life.

Do you really think that slowing down when you're driving a 50' x 15' sale makes the slightest difference? He's still going to get blown the same distance sideways regardless of forward speed.

Well said Oscar!

Do you really think that slowing down when you're driving a 50' x 15' sale makes the slightest difference? He's still going to get blown the same distance sideways regardless of forward speed.

Well said Oscar!