British police broadcast 'distressing' real footage of 'truly devastating case', here's why

TW: death, car crash, distressing footage

An initiative was taken by police in Thames Valley, in England. Their goal: to raise awareness on the dangers of using a smartphone while driving. The video shows real-life footage of a lorry driver who was still using his phone a second before crashing into a car. Inside the car was a family of four, a mother and three children, who were all killed on the scene.

Thames Valley police said they had authorisation from the victims' families to show the video, as the families hope it can raise awareness and make people realise they need to be more careful on the road.

Thames Valley police is using shock to raise awareness

In the sequence, we can see a truck driver typing on his phone in the middle of traffic. In front of that lorry, Ms Houghton, a mother, her two sons Josh, 11, and Ethan, 13, along with her step-daughter Aimee, 11, were driving in traffic, before the lorry violently crashed into them at 50mph while the car was not moving anymore.

The family of four, who was making its way back from a camping holiday in Devon, was killed instantly, with the car crushed under the lorry, and five more people were hurt. The reckless lorry driver was jailed for 10 years and banned from driving for 7 years.

The lorry crashed into a stationary queue of two lorries and four cars which were stuck behind a slow-moving lorry near East and West Isley at around 5:10pm on August 10, 2016. It first hit another lorry, which then crashed into a Citroen driven by Ms Houghton's partner, Mr Goldsmith, who was with his thirteen-year-old son Jake. Their car then crashed into Ms Houghton's car, and it was compressed to a third of its original size.

Thames Valley police prosecutor, Charles Ward-Jackson, said:

It is a particularly distressing feature that the two surviving members of the family were in the car behind, and a 13-year-old boy was forced to witness at close range the deaths of four members of close family.

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An accident that could have been easily avoided

Sergeant Gavin Collier of the Thames Valley police explained the accident was not due to a technical failure but human error, which had devastating consequences:

This was a truly devastating case where a mother and three children lost their lives and a man was seriously injured.

He added that the victims' families gave the police their approval to show the distressing footage, as they hope it will raise awareness and make people realise they need to be more careful when they're driving:

The most tragic element of this incident is that it was avoidable. Tomasz Kroker was looking at his mobile phone while driving, this needless and avoidable act has resulted in the most devastating and horrific circumstances.

No sentence will bring back Tracy, Aimee, Josh and Ethan but their families have asked that we reinforce how dangerous it is to use a mobile phone while driving.

The lorry driver is said to have been so distracted by his phone that he did not look at the road for approximately a kilometre, before crashing into the family's stationary car. Aimee's mother participates in the Thames Valley police video, urging drivers to be cautious as 'it only takes a second of distraction to kill someone'.

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This article has been adapted from Gentside FR.

Sources used:

SkyNews: A34 crash lorry driver jailed for killing family while on phone

Chronicle Live: The harrowing A34 crash footage a grieving family wants you to see to avoid further heartbreak

Newbury Today: A34 death crash driver jailed for 10 years