A 54-year-old lorry driver was putting his eye drops in when he lost control of his HGV and caused a crash that killed a father of 11 children.
Rajesh Patel, of Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, became distracted while doing 56mph and hit a broken down Volvo truck carrying chopped iron and steel on the A46 Eastern by-pass on the outskirts of Coventry.
Sixty-two-year-old fellow trucker Nigel Blount, from Sunnyhill, Derby, was unable to avoid colliding into the back of Patel's Mercedes HGV on March 5 last year.
Blount was trapped for an hour before being cut free by firefighters and taken to hospital where he succumbed to his injuries five weeks later. Doctors said the spinal trauma injuries he suffered in the crash were “a major contribution to his death”.
A court heard Patel told paramedics who treated him after the crash that he had been putting some eye drops in.
Patel, however, denied causing death by dangerous driving but was found guilty at Warwick Crown Court. Patel was told he is facing a long prison sentence.
