Truck driver Samuel McLean sentenced to jail for deaths of Adam and Jack Langford
A truck driver who killed two men in a fiery crash on the M1 and injured another woman has been jailed.
Central Coast
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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 has been sentenced to a maximum period of four years and six month jail.
Samuel Anthony McLean, 31, of Wallsend, was given a non-parole period of two years and eight months at Gosford District Court on Friday for killing Adam Langford, 52, and his nephew Jack Langford, 19, in a firey crash on July 31, 2018.
Another driver, a 75-year-old woman, in a separate car also suffered injuries including fractured ribs and underwent a shoulder replacement in hospital.
McLean had pleaded guilty to two counts of dangerous driving occasioning death and one count of dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm.
It comes as the court heard details of two witnesses who were travelling in the opposite direction on the M1 just north of the Mooney Mooney Bridge at the time of the crash about 4.45pm.
Patricia Dengate turned to her husband and said: “Oh my God, that fellow’s not going to stop, he’s not even slowing down”.
The court heard her husband Alex Dengate looked across at McLean’s Mack truck as it bore down on a bank of stationary cars waiting to exit the freeway at Kariong and said “what on earth is he doing?”.
As they passed the couple saw the truck mount the back of a stationary white Ford utility which immediately burst into flames.
The court heard McLean got out from the passenger’s side, while an off-duty police officer and off-duty paramedic called emergency services and made sure everyone else had managed to get out of their vehicles except for Mr Langford and his nephew who were trapped in the fireball.
Described as a “sandwich stack” the impact saw McLean’s truck mount the Ford, which was propelled into a Hyundai Tuscon, which hit a Hyundai i30, which hit a Kia Rio, which hit a Mazda 3.
Judge Tanya Bright said the incident had “catastrophic and far reaching” consequences and his actions demonstrated “an abandonment of responsibility”.
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.
At a sentencing hearing in December 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 Judge Bright “two people in my family have been affected but I do not wish to see a third life to be affected”.
“In my view this was a truly incredible demonstration of compassion,” Judge Bright said of his comments.
McLean had started work at 10am that morning, leaving his truck company’s Beresfield yard before making a delivery of chicken to Catherine Field in Sydney’s south west.
He was returning to Beresfield when later told police he looked down to pick up his Thermos but when he looked back up there was “a wall of cars”.
Immediately after the crash McLean told officers “I don’t know how I’m going to deal with this, I’m responsible for someone’s death”.
The court heard he had since developed depression, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder which manifest in nightmares.
With time already served he will be eligible for release on August 8, 2022.