London - Eyes glued to their phones, these truckers (pictured) are gambling with people’s lives. In just 90 minutes, no fewer than 17 were spotted illegally using mobiles on a busy motorway in the United Kingdom. One even took both his hands off the wheel to fiddle with his phone. The shocking pictures of foreign-registered lorries were taken yesterday – just 24 hours after a Polish trucker was jailed for killing a family while distracted by his mobile. Footage from inside Tomasz Kroker’s cab showed him scrolling through music on his phone before he ploughed into stationary traffic on the A34 in Berkshire. Tracy Houghton, 45, her sons Ethan, 13, and 11-year-old Josh, and step-daughter Aimee Goldsmith, 11, died instantly. The photographs, the Daily Mail newspaper, were taken on the M20 near Ashford in Kent. The majority of offenders were heading to or from Dover and the Eurotunnel. Some brazenly held their phones up to their ears or in front of their faces. Others tried to hide them on their laps, meaning they had to look down to see the screen. Research shows the reaction time of drivers is up to 50 per cent slower than normal when they are using a handheld mobile at the wheel. The lorries were doing 50 to 60mph – up to 90 yards in three seconds – meaning a short glance at their phone could be fatal. The newspaper estimated that at least 5 per cent of the lorry drivers were breaking the law, adding: ‘Every one of them is literally an accident waiting to happen. They could easily kill someone.’ The judge who jailed 30-year-old Kroker for ten years said his driving was so bad ‘he might as well have had his eyes closed’. Police have revealed that they caught another Polish lorry driver who was watching a film on a laptop as he drove along the motorway network. Kent officers said he was first spotted on the M25 near Sevenoaks and then again on the M20 near Ashford. He was stopped near the junction for the Channel Tunnel and handed a summons to appear at court. More than 200 Britons have been killed in the past ten years by drivers distracted by their phones.(FA)
