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Driver is jailed for fatal crash

17th December 1998
Page 16
Page 16, 17th December 1998 — Driver is jailed for fatal crash
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• A soldier who was moonlighting as a truck driver has been jailed for threeand-a-half years after he crashed into a stationary car, killing two men.

Lance Corporal Ibbotson had driven through the night after working all day with his colleagues in the Household Cavalry when the crash happened on the M40. He was found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving.

A jury at Reading Crown Court was told the tired soldier might have fallen asleep just moments before he hit the car containing two men on their way to work. Both of them were killed instantly.

Ibbotson's wife Caroline said she blamed herself for asking him to take another job to earn extra money.

Nigel Daly, prosecuting, told the court that Bosnian war veteran Ibbotson had been too tired to drive through the night after a full day's work in the Household Cavalry.

Ibbotson denied falling asleep at the wheel, claiming he had been momentarily distracted.

The jury heard that Ibbotson was given the driving job by the agency, People Direct, who contracted him out to another company after he phoned looking for work.

Danny Bryan, the national secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union, said Ibbotson's soldier-by-day, trucker-by-night existence was not unusual.

He says: "The military is used as a primary source for trained drivers. Army types are often used by agencies as drivers. There certainly is some evidence that they finish a day on duty and then go off to do a delivery job."


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