The daughter of a man killed in a motorway pile-up caused by a distracted lorry driver described her dad as the “ultimate family man”.
Kirkby man Mark Done, 51, was crushed to death when his stationary Citroen was hit by Peter Tootle’s Volvo lorry on the M53 in Wirral.
Tootle was today jailed for two-and-a-half years after admitting death by dangerous driving.
The crash also left another man with life-changing injuries.
In a statement, Mr Done’s daughter, Sophie, described Mr Done as her “best friend”, adding that he “made a lasting impression on everyone he met”.
Miss Done said: “My dad was the ultimate family man who adored his children and wife. He is my hero.”
The dad-of-three was on a day trip with his wife Diane to Llandudno in Wales, where the couple had first met 32 years before, on September 30 last year.
Liverpool Crown Court heard Tootle ploughed into the rear of Mr Done’s vehicle, which was queuing in traffic near the junction 4 turn-off for Bebington.
Lorry driver Peter Tootle, 61, of Naomi Close, Blacon, Chester jailed for two and half years for a crash on the M53 which killed Mark Done
The collision shunted the car into eight other vehicles, severely injuring Paul Johnson in the car ahead and leaving him with “profound and permanent” injuries.
Sophie said his loss “haunted” her and the nightmares, depression and stress led to her suffering a miscarriage.
Mr Done’s eldest sister Pauline described the professional coach driver and qualified pilot as an inspirational figure, who achieved the unexpected in life.
She said: “Upon hearing the news of my brother’s death, something inside me broke. The pain was unbelievable.
“Fourteen months have passed and that pain is still ripping my chest apart.”
Tootle, 61, of Naomi Close, Blacon, Chester, admitted causing Mr Done’s death and serious injury to Paul Johnson by dangerous driving.
Judge Andrew Menary, QC, said: “This was a straight road, a sunny cloudless day, and the defendant in any view ran straight into the back of a queue of traffic that was there to be seen.”
Kim Egerton, prosecuting, said 40mph warning signs were in place after an earlier crash on the motorway, which caused the tailback.
Tootle said he had moved from the first to the second lane to allow another lorry to join the motorway.
He claimed he was waiting to be flashed to be let back in but made the manoeuvre anyway.
Mrs Done spotted the lorry approaching them at speed and told her husband: “This lorry is coming up too fast”.
Miss Egerton said: “Her next recollection is in someone else’s car asking for her husband.”
She suffered two broken vertebrae and slipped discs and is still undergoing treatment for her back injuries.
Mr Johnson remembered nothing of the crash and woke up in hospital eight weeks later. He now needs 24-hour care.
He was left with bleeding on the brain, shattered ribs, punctured lungs, a smashed arm and the base of his spine was fractured.
Emergency services on the M53
Other drivers and passengers who described the “explosion” of the crash suffered cuts, bruising and whiplash.
This included a woman who was on her way to receive chemotherapy for cancer. She had to be given oxygen at the scene and spent a week in hospital.
Witnesses described a tearful and “very remorseful” Tootle holding his head in his hands and repeating that “he caused it all”.
Crash investigators said the cars would have been in view for 14 seconds and Tootle had an unobstructed view for eight seconds, but he did not apply his brakes.
Mr Done’s family cried in the public gallery and Tootle sobbed and rocked back and forth in the dock as harrowing footage of the crash taken from his cab was played in court.
Harpreet Sandhu, defending, said Tootle, a married grandad, was of previous good character and this was “in every sense a tragedy”.
He said: “This was a man whose remorse was instant.”
Judge Menary said the footage of the crash was “truly shocking” and family statements “particularly moving”.
He said: “Tragically you drove your HGV directly into the rear of Mr Done’s car.
“The evidence is clear – you did not make any effort at all to slow down or to brake or to alter the direction of your travel, despite the fact the queue of traffic was visible for some 400 metres.
“You must have been avoidably distracted for a substantial length of time.
“It’s still not clear what you were doing at the time or why you failed to stop.
“I have no doubt the families of those killed or injured in this tragic event will be wondering what you were doing.
“There is no evidence you were using a mobile phone or affected by fatigue, but you were not keeping a proper look-out, that much is clear, and the results were truly awful.”
The judge accepted that Tootle was genuinely remorseful.
He banned him from the road for six years and three months.
Source: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/