Lorry driver jailed for triple deaths

A truck driver who killed three people when he ploughed into them in his 38-ton lorry was jailed for six years yesterday. Ronald Kallaway - said to have been exhausted at the time of the "horrific accident" - had removed the fuse from his tachograph to avoid the strict control on drivers' hours, Basildon Crown Court was told.

Judge Frank Lockhart told Kallaway: "The most serious aggravating feature of this case is that for your own needs you were prepared to flout essential regulations which set out to try to control the use of heavy commercial vehicle ... it has been clearly established that you were working at a level which meant you were not fit to be in charge of the vehicle."

Kallaway, 51, of Cullompton, Devon, pleaded guilty to three charges of causing death by dangerous driving on the Brentwood by-pass in Essex last December when his lorry crashed into a queue of traffic waiting at roadworks.