Short trucker blinded by sun is jailed for crash

A SHORT trucker who ploughed into a queue of motorway traffic was blinded by low sunlight because his lack of height meant his windscreen visor was ineffective.

Six drivers were injured, two of them seriously, when Alan Jenkinson from Oldham failed to apply the brakes on his lorry and it crashed into two lines of standing traffic near Doncaster.

A judge told him: “Other lorry drivers could see the hazard ahead and stopped but you didn’t notice the peril ahead. Because of your stature you were not high enough to get the benefit of your visor, and had taken no steps to solve that problem.”

Jenkinson was jailed for 12 months and banned from driving for five years after pleading guilty to dangerous driving. Traffic was stationary because of an earlier accident on the southbound carriageway of the A1(M) between Marr and Warmsworth in November, 2009, Doncaster Crown Court was told.

Prosecutor Megan Rhys said van driver Michael Vaughan had already halted at the tail end of the queue when he looked in his mirror and saw the HGV was going to hit him and he could do nothing about it.

He suffered a a fracture of the spine and a severe injury to his hand, which required a six-hour operation.

Mr Vaughan needed surgery to pin his neck vertebrae and spent time in two hospitals before he was allowed home. He is still disabled and suffers flashbacks and mood swings as a result of the crash.

Simon Wise, the driver of a Ford Mondeo, was also hit from behind, said Ms Rhys, and also suffered life-changing injuries. Four other vehicles were hit by the shunt but their drivers suffered lesser injuries.

Jenkinson, of Hawksley Street, got out of his cab and told other motorists: “Sorry, sorry, the sun was in my eyes.”

His tachograph showed he was doing 56mph before the collision and an expert said he failed to react to the stationary traffic.

Jenkinson (49) said the sun was extremely low and directly in front of him and that had blinded him.