A23 lorry driver jailed after horror crash

Mark Martin, 39, pleaded guilty to causing injury by dangerous driving after admitting he was looking at a mobile device before crashing into the Fiat Punto on the northbound carriageway at Bolney on September 16 2015, said police.

Martin, of Wrentham Avenue, Herne Bay, was sentenced at Brighton Crown Court on Wednesday (May 11). He was driving a Volvo car transporter just north of the A272 slip road when the male car driver, 36, from London sustained ‘life-changing’ injuries, said Sussex Police.

A spokesman said Martin confessed in police interviews that he had been looking at his e-POD mobile device, displaying the next day’s deliveries, rather than at the road ahead.

He added: “Consequently he only saw the Fiat stopped in lane one at the last moment and was unable to take any avoiding action.

“His vehicle caused substantial damage to the Fiat, including massive intrusion into the interior, and as a result the driver was grievously injured.”

PC Christina Lane, of the Serious Collision Investigation Unit at Sussex Police, who attended the crash and saw the outcome first-hand, said: “It’s important that we raise people’s awareness of the danger that mobile devices can cause.

“In an increasingly busy world, with easy access to communications via mobiles, we need to take a step back and ask ourselves - is looking at this device really so important? Can it wait 20 minutes?

“This change in attitude might just save your life or someone else’s.”

Police said Martin was of ‘previous good character’. His sentence included an order to pay costs.

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