A NORTH Yorkshire lorry driver has been jailed for six years for causing a motorway crash which killed two men as they were changing a tyre on the hard shoulder.

Malcolm Simpson, of Sycamore Road, Barlby, near Selby, was found guilty yesterday of two counts of causing death by dangerous driving.

Simpson, 62, was seen on CCTV drifting between lanes on the M6 shortly before the crash, which happened between junctions 17 and 18 near Sandbach, in Cheshire.

Thomas Southward, 69, of Haydock, and Philip Cawley, 39, of Ashton-in-Makerfield, were changing the tyre on the hard shoulder when the accident happened in September, 2010. Mr Southward was thrown forward into the line of traffic and was hit by another HGV.

Footage captured by a Highways Agency camera and shown to the jury at Chester Crown Court showed Simpson's Scania HGV driving on to the hard shoulder and then back out to almost the middle lane, before drifting back into the hard shoulder and hitting the two men.

Liz Cunningham, a motorway inspector for Cheshire Police, said: "This was a tragic incident which has left a hole in the lives of two families. While the sentence will bring a sense of closure, this will stay with the families of Thomas and Philip forever as they try to come to terms with such a horrendous loss."

She said the tragedy could have been avoided, had Simpson “paid the necessary and correct attention”.

She said he was employed as a professional driver in a high-risk environment, where responsibility to other road-users was paramount. In a joint statement, the victims' families said: "Our families were devastated when we were informed by the police that Philip and Tommy had been killed on the hard shoulder of the M6 north of Sandbach.

"We have found this a very distressing and difficult 16 months for the inquiry to come to trial.

"We would like to thank everyone who assisted at the time of the incident, including the witnesses at the scene, Cheshire Police, the CPS, in particular Simon Parry the prosecuting barrister, and the family liaison officers who supported the families through this very trying time."

Earlier in the trial, Simpson had told the court he was heartbroken and would turn the clock back if he could, but had said the accident was “just one of those things”.

York Press: The Press - Comment

A wake-up call for all drivers

ON an otherwise ordinary day in September 2010, a lorry drifted on to the hard shoulder of the M6 in Cheshire. It veered back on to the motorway, then drifted on to the hard shoulder again. There it slammed into two men changing a tyre.

Both men were killed. And today, the driver of that lorry – 62-year-old Barlby man Malcolm John Simpson – is beginning six years behind bars after being convicted of two counts of dangerous driving at Chester Crown Court.

This was a desperately sad incident. Two families have been left grieving for loved ones they’ll never see again. And a lorry driver has had his own life ruined. He’ll live until the day he dies with the memory of what he did.

That is almost punishment enough. But it is absolutely right that he should also have been handed such a stiff prison sentence.

Of course he did not mean to kill anyone, that day in September 2010. But as Motorway Inspector Liz Cunningham of Cheshire Police said: “Had the driver paid the necessary and correct attention, this tragic incident could have been avoided.”

Simpson was employed as a professional lorry driver – making him even more culpable. But this tragic case should act as a wake-up call to all motorists.

Lorries and cars are lethal weapons. When we get behind the wheel, we have a responsibility – to ourselves, to passengers, and to other road users – to ensure we are in a fit state to drive, and then to drive sensibly and carefully.

How Simpson must be wishing he had done just that.