A Lorry driver was sentenced to six years in jail this afternoon for killing three Good Samaritans and the family they tried to help on the hard shoulder of the A1(M) in North Yorkshire.

Brian France, 55, effectively "abandoned control" of his articulated vehicle as it sped at maximum speed towards a "conspicuous" hazard visible for about half a mile, York Crown Court heard.

He ploughed into a yellow lorry that was showing hazard lights, despite a man clearly waving to warn traffic of the danger ahead.

France's lorry forced the yellow lorry on to the Vauxhall Carlton it was protecting, instantly killing the three people inside, said Andrew Dallas, prosecuting.

They were Sandra Jennings, 37, a social worker of Huntington Road, York, her sister, Karen McCutcheon, 39, of Aberdeen, and Karen's husband, Colin, 34, all on their way home after attending a funeral.

The collision also killed Stephen Madison, 43, and his wife, Wendy, 39, of Topcliffe, near Thirsk, and removal man David Cooper, 32, of Chester, who had stopped to help the family after the Carlton crashed into a side barrier.

France's lorry had been swerving from side to side for miles before the collision, and he appeared to be either dozing at the wheel or reading a piece of paper.

Jailing France for six years and banning him from driving for eight, Judge Paul Hoffman told France: "For a significant time and distance you had abandoned effective control over a heavy lorry which was travelling at maximum speed - almost on auto-pilot, as it were - along a motorway. The chance of disaster was appreciably high and you voluntarily and reprehensibly took that risk with its terrible consequences."

France, 55, of Worsborough Road, Birdwell, Barnsley, pleaded guilty to six charges of causing death by dangerous driving.

The court heard he rose at 3.15am and started work at 7.45am on Saturday, November 11. The collision occurred at about 3pm after he had driven 162 miles to the Teesside area from Rotherham.

He was on his way back to South Yorkshire with an empty lorry at the time of the collision, three and a half miles south of the Dishforth interchange on the A1(M).

Mr Dallas said that Mr Cooper seemed to have parked his large yellow removal lorry to shield the Carlton a few minutes before France's arrival and that France had engaged his cruise control, a mechanism that keeps the lorry going at a constant speed.

France was travelling at 55mph, the maximum his lorry could do, and made no attempt to swerve or brake prior to the collision.

For France, Shaun Spencer QC said: "He wishes he had himself not survived the crash. He accepts that would have been a less bad fate than the burden of guilt which now rests on him for the rest of his life.

"He has prepared a letter for each of the relatives of those who died in which he apologises for what took place."

Mr Spencer said there had been an unfortunate chain of events.

Updated: 16:40 Monday, June 04, 2001