THE driver of an articulated lorry was not looking at the road when he smashed into a broken down car on the M62, seriously injuring a support worker, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Lee Marshall sustained eight fractured ribs, a broken back and a collapsed lung when the Ford Fiesta he was driving was crushed and spun across the eastbound carriageway into the central reservation.

Truck driver Slawomir Kraszewski, 43, denies causing serious injury by dangerous driving near Junction 26 of the motorway shortly after 7.30pm on January 4 last year.

Prosecutor Abigail Langford said the Crown’s case was that his driving fell far below that of a careful and competent driver when he failed to see the Fiesta stationary in the nearside or “slow lane” with its hazard lights on.

Miss Langford said Kraszewski, of Laughton Way, Lincoln, ploughed into the back of the car at 53mph without braking, swerving or attempting in any way to avoid the impact.

The court heard that Mr Marshall was “trundling” along the motorway after suffering a mechanical failure to his vehicle. It came to a halt and other vehicles had managed to avoid it before the articulated lorry struck it.

The jury watched dashcam footage from the lorry showing it smashing into the Fiesta, reducing it to a crumpled wreck.

Miss Langford said it was so severely damaged that the rear end of the car was in line with the driver’s door.

Kraszewski’s phone was seized by the police and he told officers he made a three minute call to Poland shortly before the crash, using the hands-free device in the cab.

“His mobile phone was being used in the seconds before the collision or at the time of it,” Miss Langford said.

“For one reason or another he was not looking at the road,” she alleged.

Jeremy Dyson, a passenger in a silver Audi A1, said he saw the crash in the side mirror of the vehicle.

The Audi had just overtaken the Fiesta that was “trundling” along, looking like it had lost power.

Mr Dyson said the Audi driver backed up the hard shoulder to the crash scene while he called 999 to alert the emergency services to a serious accident on the motorway.

Mr Dyson said the Fiesta had crashed into the central reservation barrier and his friend in the Audi went to help the driver.

The truck driver was in shock and the front of his lorry was badly damaged.

Mr Dyson said he told him words to the effect: “I didn’t see him,” or: “He just pulled out.”

The trial continues.

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