Fatality driver is committed
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• The low-loader driver responsible for a horrific crash which left five motorists dead has been sent to a mental hospital after a court heard that the tragedy had left him mentally scarred.
Judge Graham Cottle ordered that driver Mark Wade should he detained under the Mental Health Act after two psychiatrists diagnosed Wade as suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.
More than 1,000 people from Wade's home village of Fraddon, Cornwall had signed a petition in his support.
Judge Cottle told him that to have sent him to prison would have been an unjust outcome to the terrible tragedy.
Wade had already been found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving after a two-week trial at Truro Crown Court. He had admitted falsifying a tachograph chart and five counts of failing to keep proper records.
He was given a 12-month discharge for the tacho offences, was banned from driving and had his licence endorsed with six penalty points.
The court heard Wade was carrying a digger and failed to secure its arm with a pin or chain when he loaded it at the end of a 15-hour day during which he had driven 500 miles.
A piece of dirt had caused the hydraulics to fail, allowing the arm to swing out on corners.
H Wade's employer, Hazeley Plant Hire, and its parent company, Chepstow Plant Hire, are understood to be appealing against fines of £500,000 after being found guilty of exposing others to danger.