A lorry driver who was watching TikTok videos on his phone has been jailed for 28 months after ploughing his 44-tonne HGV into a couple returning from Manchester Airport, leaving them with devastating injuries.
Jack Haddow, 29, admitted two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving at Liverpool Crown Court on October 1. The court heard how he smashed into the back of a Jaguar on the M6, causing it to veer into the central reservation.
Couple's ordeal on M6
Kevin Prescott, 64, had collected his wife Deborah, 65, from Manchester Airport in the early hours of April 1 last year. The couple were travelling home to Lancashire in their Jaguar XE saloon on the M6 northbound between junction 22 at Winwick, Warrington, and junction 23 at Haydock shortly before 2am.
Haddow was driving a Mercedes Artos HGV from a warehouse in Nuneaton, West Midlands, to another in Preston with an attached but unloaded container. The speed limit on the smart motorway had been reduced to 40mph at the time, with the Prescotts' car travelling at this speed in the first lane. But the lorry collided with the back of their vehicle at around 50mph, causing it to veer across the carriageway and crash into the central reservation.
One man who witnessed the collision stopped and rushed to check on the occupants, finding Mr Prescott unresponsive in the driver's seat and having "struggled to look at" Mrs Prescott due to the extent of her injuries as she cried: "My husband has died. He's dead."
Injuries and hospital treatment
Despite the motorist waving his hands at passing traffic and shining the torch on his mobile phone to alert others, one of the Jaguar's doors was then clipped by another driver, although no further injuries were caused. Mrs Prescott told police she "couldn't feel her legs", having suffered displaced open fractures to her ankle and wrist and several broken ribs.
After being rushed to Salford Royal Hospital, she underwent a nine-hour operation to save and reconstruct her right leg. Mr Prescott sustained a number of rib fractures, a broken sternum and a spinal vertebra. The couple were transferred to Preston Hospital together eight days later on April 9.
Phone analysis reveals TikTok use
Haddow returned negative breath and drug tests at the scene, having told officers he had been travelling in excess of 50mph and accepted crashing into the back of the Jaguar. He falsely claimed under interview that the car had slowed down in front of him and maintained he had attempted to change lane to avoid a collision.
Having stated he had not seen any signs indicating a 40mph limit, Haddow said he had been "listening to TikTok live performance of a singer" and had "never touched his phone". But an analysis of his iPhone 15 found the handset had been unlocked 21 times in the two hours before the crash, including a period of up to eight minutes immediately prior to the collision where the TikTok app was active. Facebook, Safari browser and Apple Mail had also been used.
Jonathan Keane, prosecuting, said: "In essence, the phone, the crown say, was clearly in the defendant's reach within that cabin. There were 18 activations of the device for varying length times, some seconds, some a considerable period, between midnight and the time of the collision. Evidence from that analysis indicates the TikTok app was in use at the time of the collision."
Sentencing and impact
Oliver Jarvis, defending, told the court that Haddow has a partner and two children, aged six and two, with a third on the way, and caring responsibilities for his mother. He said Haddow had no points on his licence and no offending before or since, adding: "It says in the pre-sentence report that Mr Haddow accepted full responsibility for the offences and did not seek to minimise his actions. He acknowledged that he was not paying sufficient attention to the road and accepted his standard driving fell well below what was expected."
Sentencing, Recorder Anna Price remarked that Haddow's actions had had a "terrible impact", noting the speed limit was clearly indicated by signs on the overhead gantries. She said: "This is not a case where you used your mobile phone once. The evidence shows that you used it repeatedly over the course of the journey and in the lead up to this collision taking place. You were driving a heavy goods vehicle for a commercial purpose at the time. It is clearly a much more dangerous vehicle than someone driving a car."
Haddow was jailed for 28 months and banned from driving for a total of two years and nine months, and will be required to pass an extended retest before being allowed back behind the wheel. He told his family "I love yous" as he was led to the cells, with his partner replying "I love you so much".
