Bath tipper truck crash: Company owner and mechanic jailed over deadly crash

Pair have been jailed for 13 years between them for the crash which killed four people – including a little girl

Court sketch of (l-r) Peter Wood, Phillip Potter and Matthew Gordon at Bristol Crown Court (PA Wire/PA Images)

Two men have been jailed after a 32-tonne tipper truck careered down a hill and killed four people, including a four-year-old girl.

Mitzi Steady died and her grandmother suffered serious injuries after they were hit by the poorly maintained lorry after it breaks failed while in travelled down a steep, narrow and twisting road in Bath, Somerset in February 2015.

The vehicle also killed Stephen Vaughan, 34, of Swansea, and Philip Allen, 52, and Robert Parker, 59, both of Cwmbran, all of whom died at the scene after their Volvo was crushed.

Judge Brian Langstaff sentenced haulage boss Matthew Gordon, 30, and mechanic Peter Wood, 55, for seven and a half years and five and a half years respectively after they were found guilty of four counts of manslaughter.

The truck’s driver, 20-year-old Phillip Potter, was cleared of all charges.

The court heard how Gordon and Wood had a “cavalier” attitude to safety and had allowed the heavily loaded Scania truck – with almost 45,000 miles on the clock and long-standing defects with its braking system – to travel on roads which were far to narrow for HGVs while carrying aggregate.

There were signs before the road, Lansdown Lane, warning that is was unsuitable for heavy goods vehicles and there was a 6ft width restriction imposed.

The 8.5ft wide lorry should have not been on the road but two HGVs driven by Mr Potter and Gordon were using Lansdown Lane as a shortcut when the accident happened.

Mr Potter was following Gordon down the lane when the brakes on his 11-year-old truck, which had not been tested, failed. Six of the eight brakes had major defects.

Mr Justice Langstaff described the incident as “an accident waiting to happen”.

He said: "I accept that neither of you intended death or injury or even brake failure.

"But the fact is that a lorry as heavy as this is likely to cause serious injury and death to members of the public unless properly maintained.

"The brakes are critical. You know this. You knew that being casual about the safety risked the lives of others. Your failures are inexplicable.

"If they were one-off failures that would be bad enough, but they are not. They were part and parcel of the way you approached your responsibilities."

The jury heard how Mr Potter and another driver had warned Gordon about the brakes before the accident but was told to keep driving.

It also heard that Gordon had instructed Mr Potter to not mention that an ABS warning light – which indicates problems with the braking system – had been on at the time of the accident.

The 32-tonne tipper truck careered out of control down a hill in Bath, killing four people (PA Wire/PA Images)

"You exposed Mr Potter, a young driver, to the horror of unavoidably killing a young child," the judge told him.

"You showed no immediate remorse for what happened."

Braking defects on the lorry would have been "staring" Wood in the face as he inspected the vehicle every six weeks, while there was a "botched repair" on one brake and Wood had no qualifications as a mechanic, the judge said.

Speaking after the case, Detective Chief Inspector Richard Ocone, of Avon and Somerset Police, said the lorry's brakes had an overall efficiency of just 28 per cent.

Additional reporting by PA