A DRIVER who crashed his van at high speed into a car queueing on an M32 slip road, killing another man, has avoided a jail sentence.
Jamie Nicholls told police he was looking for a cigarette and his attention was off the road “for a second or two” before he crashed into Michael Stone’s car, killing the father-of-two from Longwell Green.
Mr Stone’s car was pushed into the car in front, causing further collisions involving a fourth and fifth vehicle.
A work colleague of 68-year-old Mr Stone, who was a passenger in his car, suffered “significant physical injuries” including a head injury and seven broken ribs.
Nicholls and another driver also needed hospital treatment.
Nicholls, aged 48, pleaded guilty to charges of causing death and serious injury by careless driving before he was sentenced on February 26.
He was not sent to prison, instead being given a 14-month suspended sentence and a one-year driving ban.
Nicholls, of Otterhampton, near Bridgwater, was told he must take an extended test before he can get his licence back, abide by a 60-day curfew and undergo 10 days of rehabilitation, as well as paying a victim surcharge and costs, when he was sentenced at Bristol Crown Court.
In a statement read to the court Mr Stone’s widow, Penny, said she had had to break the news that her husband of 40 years had been killed to one of their two daughters who was in America on her honeymoon at the time.
She said: “Mike was the foundation on which our family was built.
“When we gather around the table now there is an empty space where he should be sat, head of the family. You knew you were safe when Mike was around and everything would be alright.
“I have lost my husband, my best friend, the father of my children, my rock, the person who rubbed my back when it ached, made my morning cuppa, laughed with me, wiped away my tears, danced with me, loved me.
“My heart is truly broken, and I miss him so much it physically hurts. All I have left of him are my memories, and that shouldn’t be.
“Our daughters have lost an amazing dad who would do anything for them however old they were.
“I never got the chance to say goodbye to Mike on that fateful day. I waved him off to work and the next time I saw him was 11 days later in the mortuary.”
She told Nicholls: “The actions you took on that day when you got in your van have changed everyone in our families’ lives forever.
“But, more importantly, Mike was denied the right to live his life because of you.”
After the case, police investigating officer Noelie Poupard said: “This was a collision caused by Nicholls’ failure to concentrate on the road ahead of him.
“A motorist looking away from the road, even for a second, will cover quite a significant distance when they are travelling 70mph and the consequences can be horrendous, as this case painfully demonstrates.”