Jail for fatal crash lorry driver who was distracted by his mobile

Florin Solomon told police at the scene of the crash on the East Lancs Road in Leigh that he had gone through a junction when the traffic lights were on amber.

But the 29-year-old’s guilt was nailed by his own dash cam which showed that the lights at the junction with Atherleigh Way had been on red for at least eight seconds when his Scania HGV collided with a Toyota Corolla being driven by Mark Byrne MBE on January 21 this year.

Manchester Crown Court was told that the 58-year-old was a “military hero” with 25 years’ service and that he was fatally injured in the smash.

In the passenger seat was his wife Julie and the hearing was told that, while badly injured herself, she had to stay in the car for nearly an hour after the crash while firefighters worked to free her husband.

She suffered a fractured sternum and was taken to hospital in a serious condition.

The court was shown dash-cam footage from a car travelling behind Solomon’s lorry and was told “absolutely horrific” video footage had also been obtained from his vehicle.

The Corolla had been in a queue of traffic waiting to turn right from Atherleigh Way onto the A580 following a hospital appointment.

It was the second car to turn once the traffic lights changed to green.

But his car was hit by Solomon’s lorry and crashed into the central reservation.

When police arrived, Solomon said: “I’m going to jail. I went through on amber.”

The court was told that Solomon’s mobile phone was seized by police and analysis showed he was using an app for Amazon at the time of the crash.

The barrister defending Solomon - of Landsdowne Road, Worcester - described the crash as a “harrowing collision” and said the defendant had been in a “harrowing state of shock” afterwards.

The court was told that the Romanian national who was a temporary agency worker, had never been before the courts before and had a clean driving licence. Neither had he been drinking nor taking drugs before the collision.

He left Romania at the age of 15, spending 11 years in Italy before moving to the UK.

Mr Byrne, from Warrington, received his MBE in 2003 for his armed service and his 10 years of charitable work for children affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

He worked in Whitehall as a private soldier before he was posted to Germany in the 1990s, and later returned to the country as a civil servant for the Ministry of Defence.

The court heard the father-of-three and grandfather had planned to foster children with his wife as part of their retirement before tragedy struck.

In a victim personal statement Mrs Byrne said she had lost her “soul mate” and that “getting through each day is a task” as she still suffers physical pain and nightmares.

Sentencing, Judge Graeme Smith told Solomon: “It has been accepted that it was your stupidity and recklessness that led to the accident.” Solomon was also hit with a driving ban of five years and 11 months.

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