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Sci-fi-watching truck driver is given community service
Page 16
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By David Harris A SHROPSHIRE truck driver convicted of dangerous driving after watching a DVD of a popular science-fiction series in his cab has been given 225 hours of community work.
Benjamin Trotsman, a fan of the Battlestar Galactica science-fiction series, was spotted watching the show on a laptop on his dashboard as he drove through Cumbria.
The police had been alerted by another truck driver who had seen Trotsman's 38-tonner veering across the M6 near Kendal.
He had spotted a laptop propped up on the dashboard of Trotman's truck with figures moving about on the screen.
When the police patrol car stopped Trotsman's truck, officers found that he appeared to have been watching several episodes of the cult television series as he drove along the motorway.
Trotsman, of Bridgnorth, Shropshire, pleaded guilty at Penrith Magistrates' Court in August, but sentencing was adjourned until last week.
A police spokesman says: "This was a sustained incident of highly dangerous driving by a professional lorry driver in charge of a 38-tonne articulated lorry.Theconsequences of this level of inattention could have been horrendous."