Sentencing hearing for M1 firey crash truck driver Sam McLean
A man who lost his son and his brother in a firey crash on the M1 motorway has urged a judge not to throw the book at the truck driver responsible.
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A truck driver who took his eyes off the road for “a second or two” before ploughing into the back of a ute killing two men on the M1 will spend his first night behind bars after being remanded in custody.
Samuel Anthony McLean faced Gosford District Court today which heard the 31-year-old, of West Wallsend, wished to commence his sentence immediately for killing Adam Langford, 52, and his nephew Jack Langford, 19, in a firey crash on July 31 last year.
At a previous appearance McLean had pleaded guilty to two counts of dangerous driving occasioning death and one count of dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm to a third victim who was in another vehicle impacted by the collision.
He was not previously on bail or restricted liberty.
It came as Adam Langford’s brother — the father of Jack — read an emotional victim impact statement along with his sister Anne.
At the end of his statement Peter Langford told District Court Judge Tanya Bright two people in his family had been lost but he did not wish to see “a third (life) to be affected”.
“Adam helped me raise my four children after my wife died in 2011 from cancer,” Peter Langford said of his brother.
“Losing him has been extremely hard, it never gets any easier.”
Peter Langford said his son had moved in with his brother at Woy Woy after falling in with the wrong crowd and how only days before the crash he had told his son how proud he was of him.
He said he had been looking forward to his first of four children’s 21st birthday next February ever since his “beautiful boy” was born.
“I shudder to think what was the last thing to cross his mind. I only hope his mother was with him,” he said.
The court heard McLean had passed an electronic warning sign advising motorists of “queued traffic, Kariong off-ramp, prepare to stop” in his Mack truck but after crossing the Mooney Mooney Bridge he reached down for his Thermos of coffee.
When he looked up he saw a “wall of cars” banked up in the northbound lanes about 4.45pm.
He would later tell officers during his electronically recorded interview he didn’t even know if he braked before running into the back of a white Ford utility.
Adam and Jack Langford were trapped in the utility, which burst into flames killing them both.
In his police interview McLean said he had seen the electronic warning sign at Mount White about 4.5km south of the accident scene.
He said he leant down to pick up his coffee, taking his eyes off the road “for a second or two”.
However a crash investigator found the traffic queues would have been visible for about 800m on the downhill approach to the bridge.
“The time for the accused to arrive at the collision site after first being able to observe the slowing traffic would be at least 28 seconds if travelling at 100km/h and at least 30 seconds if travelling at 95km/h,” the crash investigator said in an agreed set of fact tendered in court.
McLean’s barrister Paul Lowe said his client had a “profound sense of remorse” and “guilt he will live with for the rest of his life”
McLean will be sentenced on February 14.