A grieving family have issued a desperate plea for motorists to put their phone away while at the wheel after a lorry driver killed three people while he was distracted by a LadBible video.
Michal Kopaniarz smashed his nine-ton vehicle into Alex Britton, 28, as well as two other motorists who had stopped to help the young mother-of-two after her car broke down on the A303 near Andover, Hampshire, in August 2021.
Good Samaritan Tina Ince, 58, and DAF recovery truck driver Tom Watson, 30, were killed in the crash alongside bride-to-be Alex.
Kopaniarz, 39, had been looking at a seven minute video on his phone as he smashed into the trio, before trying to destroy his phone by throwing it into the undergrowth. He was jailed for 12 years in February last year.
Alex’s family have today come forward to plead with motorists to put their phone away while driving, in harrowing interviews describing their grief.
Aaron Law, Alex’s fiancée, described telling his two children about their mother’s death as ‘one of the most devastating things I’ve ever done’.
Avril Swain, Alex’s mother, also added: ‘When I actually found out that he had been on his phone… unimaginable, actually, that somebody in charge of that huge lorry would take his eyes off the road to look at his phone.Since the day of this incident, our lives have changed forever.’
In video footage shown to the court last year, Kopaniarz’s lorry is seen hurtling towards the stationary vehicles at 56mph during the morning rush hour at around 8.40am.
The greiving families heard how 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.
In the immediate aftermath of the collision, Kopaniarz was seen snapping his phone in half and throwing it into a nearby undergrowth.
Avril added: ‘There’s no turning back from it, it was catastrophic. If anybody is thinking about even peeking at their phone whilst driving, just don’t. Whatever it is, it can wait until the end of your journey or, if it is some emergency, pull over. Please don’t drive whilst being on your phone.’
Alex was engaged to Mr Law and had daughters Payton, five, and two-year- old Ava together.
They were due to be married after their initial wedding was postponed due to Covid.
He said: ‘One of the most devastating things I’ve ever done is break the news to my, at the time, three year old daughter that her mummy wasn’t coming back home.
‘Being only three we thought she would find it hard to understand, but instantly she grasped what was going on and she broke down in tears.
‘I never planned to raise two children by myself. We planned to do it as a family. I now struggle every day with simple tasks. There’s just certain things that I can’t teach them, that mummy would have taught them.’
Mr Britton, her father, added: ‘She’s always in our thoughts, we have times when we’ll sit here and think about some of the good times we had, and then also think about the day.
‘I’ve now had to get counselling to deal with the grief, no one should ever have to bury their children before them.’
Kopaniarz pleaded guilty to causing three deaths by dangerous driving. He also admitted attempting to destroy his Samsung phone which showed he was using it in the moments before he smashed into his victims.
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.
When first interviewed by police Kopaniarz said there had been an issue with his brakes.
But Winchester Crown Court heard that physical evidence analysis found the brakes were not applied until the HGV vehicle was nine to 12 metres away from the eventual pile-up.
Hampshire Constabulary said roads policing officers will be out in force with ‘increased patrols’ throughout April.
Detective Constable Mark Furse, who was the Family Liaison Officer for Alex’s relatives, said: ‘This was a terrible incident where three people lost their lives because of one man’s selfish actions.
‘Using your mobile phone is a huge distraction when driving but sadly we still see people doing this every day.
‘Nothing is so important that it justifies using your phone while driving and there’s just no excuse for it.
‘If you choose to use your mobile phone when you’re driving and it goes wrong, you will get caught and you will go to prison.’
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