Man sentenced for causing fatal five-car pile up
BBCA man who caused a fatal five-vehicle pile up while searching for a cigarette has been banned from driving for a year.
Jamie Nicholls, 48, pleaded guilty to causing the crash on the exit slip road of the M32 at Hambrook, near Bristol, shortly before 10:00 BST on 22 August 2024.
He told officers he had looked down "for a second", and by the time he looked back up, he could not brake his van to avoid the stationary car in a queue in front of him.
Avon and Somerset Police said several people were found to have sustained injuries, including 68-year-old Michael Stone from Longwell Green, who died at the scene.
Nicholls, from Otterhampton near Bridgwater, Somerset, was sentenced at Bristol Crown Court on Thursday to 14 months in prison, suspended for 18 months.
He was also disqualified from the road for 12 months, subject to an extended test, 60 days curfew and 10 days rehabilitation, victim surcharge and costs.
The court heard Nicholls crashed his van into the back of Stone's blue Peugeotat high speed.
The Peugeot then collided with a third car in front of it, leading to further impact with a fourth and fifth vehicle.
A colleague of Stone was a passenger in the car and sustained significant physical injuries, including seven broken ribs and head injury.
Penny Stone told the court said she assumed her and her husband of 40 years "would have many more years to make memories together".
She also described the pain of telling their two daughters what happened, one of whom who was in America on her honeymoon at the time.
"Mike was the foundation on which our family was built on," Mrs Stone said.
"You knew you were safe when Mike was around and everything would be alright.
"I have lost my husband, my best friend, the father of my children, my rock, the person who rubbed my back when it ached, made my morning cuppa, laughed with me, wiped away my tears, danced with me, loved me.
"My heart is truly broken, and I miss him so much it physically hurts. All I have left of him are my memories and that shouldn't be.
"I never got the chance to say goodbye to Mike on that fateful day. I waved him off to work and the next time I saw him was 11 days later in the mortuary."
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