A LORRY driver has admitted killing four people from the same family on the A34 after ploughing into four stationary cars while changing the music on his mobile phone.
Tomasz Kroker was charged with causing the deaths of Tracey, Josh and Ethan Houghton and Aimee Goldsmith by dangerous driving in a horror crash on the stretch near East Ilsley in August.
The 30-year-old was distracted for seven seconds by his mobile phone in the moments leading up to the concertina crash which was captured in harrowing dash cam footage.
The horrific crash was followed by another on the A34 two weeks later, in which three-year Isla Wiggin was killed.
Since the tragedies, there have been fresh calls for more safety measures along the A34.
Grieving family members listened from the public gallery as Charles Ward Jackson, prosecuting, warned that the court would watch the short clip of their loved ones being killed before Kroker is sentenced by a High Court judge later this month.
The father-of-one was also charged with a single count of causing serious injury by dangerous driving following the crash which happened at around 5.10pm on August 10.
Mr Ward Jackson said: "One of the issues a sentencing judge will have to think about is how long the defendant was distracted by his mobile phone.
"This was at least seven-and-three-quarter seconds as shown by dash cam video.
"The best evidence shows simultaneously the defendant looking repeatedly at his mobile phone.
"Another angle through the windscreen shows the fast-approaching queue of vehicles.”
Forty-five-year-old Mrs Houghton was killed along with sons Ethan, aged 13 years, and Josh, aged 11 years, as well as step-daughter Aimee Goldsmith, also aged 11 years, when their Vauxhall Corsa was crushed underneath another lorry.
Mrs Houghton’s partner and Aimee’s father, Mark Goldsmith, witnessed the moment of horror from his Vauxhall Zafira while the family travelled back from a camping holiday.
Four lorries and four cars were involved in the fatal crash in total which killed the mother and the three children from Dunstable. The northbound carriageway was closed.
The crash closed a six-mile section of the A34, from junction 13 of the M4 to East and West Ilsley and it remained shut for more than 18 hours.
Kroker, of Tarjan Walk, Andover, Hants., could face almost 10 years in jail when he is sentenced by a High Court Judge on October 31 at Reading Crown Court. He will remain in custody until then.
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