A lorry driver ploughed into and killed three motorists after being distracted by a seven-minute video playing on his phone seconds before impact, a court heard today.
Michal Kopaniarz's nine tonne HGV smashed into mother-of-two and bride-to-be Alex Britton, as well as two other motorists who stopped to help her after her car broke down.
He was today jailed after he was also found to have typed in sat-nav directions before the huge vehicle collided with the victims.
Sickening dash-cam footage from the lorry shows it hurtling towards the stationary vehicles at 56mph and in the aftermath footage shows him destroying his phone and throwing it into undergrowth at the crash site.
Having pleaded guilty to causing the three deaths by dangerous driving in a horror smash on a major dual carriageway, the 39-year-old also admitted destroying his Samsung phone which showed he was using when he smashed into Miss Britton on the A303 near Andover, Hants.
Today's sentencing hearing was also shown footage of the crash which led to 28-year-old Miss Britton, of Portsmouth, Hants, Tina Ince and Tom Watson, both from Southampton, being pronounced dead at the scene.
Good Samaritan Ms Ince, 58, was driving a Mercedes food delivery van when she stopped to help Miss Britton - whose Vauxhall Astra had broken down.
Both women were killed along with DAF recovery truck driver Tom Watson, 30, when Kopaniarz's lorry smashed into their vehicles around 8.40am on August 25 2021.
Today, at Winchester Crown Court, Hampshire, grieving families heard for the first time that Kopaniarz had been distracted by a video he was watching on his phone and even sent a link of it to a woman on Facebook.
Prosecutor Simon Jones told the court that on a day of 'clear' visibility, Kopaniarz had a 170 metre 'unobstructed view' of the static vehicles.
He said: "On that morning, Alex Britton was driving along the A303 when her vehicle broke down in lane one."
Ms Ince had stopped to see if she could 'assist' and was joined by Mr Watson who also stopped to see if he could help with his recovery truck.
"Meanwhile the defendant had been driving his vehicle in order to deliver bottled water to a Co-op depot in Andover," he continued.
"He failed to react in time to the vehicles in front of him.
"All three were killed instantly sustaining catastrophic injuries."
Police analysis of the phone Kopaniarz had tried to hide showed he had watched a seven minute LadBible video and sent the link to a woman on Facebook just 40 seconds before the crash.
"After watching the video clip, just seconds before impact, the defendant was halfway through typing into a mapping application the destination of his delivery," he added.
Dashcam footage viewed in court then showed Kopaniarz breaking his phone in half and throwing it into the nearby grass verge.
Mr Jones continued: "From the moment of this collision, the defendant's actions were directed to destroying evidence he knew implicated him and points towards his culpability and dangerous driving.
"While he said he did not see [the vehicles] he knows the reason for this was because he was using his phone.
"The defendant did not see the vehicles in lane one because he was not paying attention and was plainly distracted by using his mobile phone."
When first interviewed by police Kopaniarz said there had been an issue with his brakes.
However Mr Jones said: "Irrespective of whether the emergency brakes were working, he simply was not in a position to apply them because he was looking at his phone."
The court heard that physical evidence analysis found the brakes were not applied until the HGV vehicle was 9-12 metres away the eventual pile-up.
He added: "It is clear the mobile phone use appears to be the main factor in this collision.
"The driving fell far below what would be expected of a competent and careful driver and man who drives for a living.
"It was plainly obvious that driving in that was would be dangerous and led to the tragic death of three people."
Several bereaved family members and partners read their moving personal statements to the court.
Miss Britton's childhood sweetheart, Aaron Law, who had daughters Payton, five, and two year old Ava together were engaged and due to be married after their initial wedding was postponed due to Covid.
An emotional Mr Law said: "My life, my girls' lives and my families lives are ruined and changed forever.
"No one can prepare themselves for having to tell their three year old daughter that mummy died and she will never be coming home.
"There are no words that begin to describe how that felt.
"My children should not have to refer to their mummy as a star. As beautiful as it sounds - it breaks my heart.
"Alex was and still is my entire world. You need to understand what you have stolen from me, my children and my whole family."
Looking at Kopaniarz directly, he said: "You took my wife to be, you took my best friend, you took the mother of my children and you stole my happily ever after."
The tearful widow of Tom Watson, Emma, said: "You were my best friend, my soul mate, my heart.
"I miss him every second of every day. We wanted to grow old together but this has been stolen from us."
He was jailed for 12 years and condemned by the judge who said his "lamentable" driving turned the lorry into a "lethal weapon".
He also admitted perverting the course of justice by breaking the Samsung mobile phone he had been using.
The judge also banned the defendant from driving for 16 years and ordered him to take an extended retest before he can drive again.
