Labour lord involved in crash jailed over text messages
A Labour peer has been sent to jail over dangerous driving offences committed moments before a fatal car accident - but the judge has made clear that the offence should not be held to be related to the crash.
Before the road traffic accident, the lord had been exchanging text messages with a journalist over an extended period while travelling at 60mph in Yorkshire. The judge said that this "constituted a gross, avoidable distraction and amounts to driving involving deliberate disregard for the safety of others".
However, there was no evidence that the peer had been texting when the fatal car crash occurred. A car had previously crashed into the central reservation and was lying stationary across two lanes of the M1, without lights, making it hard to see until a driver was almost upon it.
The family that had been in the stationary car had escaped to the hard shoulder, but the father had returned to the vehicle to retrieve his mobile phone when the car accident took place.
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