Truck driver found guilty of killing eight Indians in UK
A truck driver was found guilty of causing the deaths of eight Indians in one of Britain's worst road accidents last year. He was convicted at the end of a trial at Reading Crown Court. The jury heard that he was twice over the legal drink-drive limit and had stopped in the inside lane of the highway when he was involved in the crash.
Truck crashed into a minibus and another truck in August
Ryszard Masierak, the Polish truck driver crashed into a minibus and another truck near Newport Pagnell in southern England in August. He had denied the charges of causing the deaths of Nottingham-based Keralite minibus driver Cyriac Joseph and seven of his passengers - all Indians. Joseph had been hired to drive his passengers from Nottingham to London to join a European holiday tour group.
Court yet to announce verdict on the second truck's driver
The jury is yet to pronounce its verdict on David Wagstaff, a British citizen who was driving the second truck involved in the collision and will continue deliberations. However, it reached a unanimous verdict on Masierak's guilt, who was also convicted of four counts of causing serious injury, in relation to injuring four other passengers including a little girl orphaned by the crash.
The victims of the fatal accident
The victims from Nottingham's Malayali community and their relatives named Panneerselvam Annamalai, Rishi Ranjeev Kumar, Vivek Baskaran, Lavanyalakshmi Seetharaman, Karthikeyan Pugalur Ramasubramanian, Subramaniyan Arachelvan, and Tamilmani Arachelvan were on their way to London to catch a bus to Disneyland in Paris. The sentencing in the case will take place after the jury decides on both the accused later this week.
