A lorry driver has been jailed for killing a retired couple by driving straight into a line of eight cars while being distracted by using his phone as a sat nav.
Richard and Angela Wong, 62 and 56, were completely stationary as they waited at the end of a queue on September 19, 2019, when Steven Bennett, 29, drove into the back of their car in his 10-tonne lorry.
The couple from Northenden, Manchester, who were married for 37 years, had been on their way home to their daughter, son and two grandchildren from a retirement caravan in Wales.
Bennett, who used to play football for Barnsley FC, was focusing on plugging his phone in so that his sat nav would reconnect when he drove into the Wongs on the M56 near Warrington, in Cheshire.
Their Toyota Avensis was pushed into the seven cars in front of them and Mrs Wong, who was driving, died on the scene.
Paramedics managed to get Mr Wong out alive but he died in hospital three days later. The collision also injured five others.
Bennett initially told police he was distracted by a bird flying past but a phone examination later showed he had been using it while driving.
Just before the accident, Bennett plugged the phone in to charge and then unplugged it twice.
He also changed the screen orientation on his sat nav app twice.
The ex-footballer has a previous conviction for using his phone while driving in June 2018.
He has also spent time in jail for robbery and affray.
Bennett admitted two counts of causing death by dangerous driving last month. He was sentenced to five years in jail on Thursday.
The Wongs’ daughter Charlotte told Chester Crown Court: ‘I am a different person to the one I was before September 19 2019, the day my parents were ripped from my life, my heart and my future.
‘To quantify their loss is like trying to quantify the size of the black hole, it is endless and bleak. The pain I feel every day is like carrying a weight that never eases.’
Defending, Richard Barradell said the ‘absolutely unintentional’ accident happened while Bennett was trying to fix his sat nav’s ‘faulty connection’.
Mr Barradell said that while he knows this makes ‘absolutely no difference’ to the victims’ family, this ‘has to be contrasted’ to someone texting their friends.
The lawyer went on to say Bennett has shown ‘genuine remorse’ and is ‘truly sorry’.
District Crown Prosecutor Victoria Colvin said the couple’s ‘lives were cut short by the actions of Steven Bennett’.
She added: ‘When we are behind the wheel of a vehicle, we carry a big responsibility and our actions can cause dreadful consequences, as we have seen in this case.’
Bennett, from, Grimethorpe, Barnsley, was also banned from driving for four years and ordered to undertake an extended retest.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.