A lorry driver who ploughed into stationary traffic on a motorway and killed three people having looked at adult dating sites on his phone moments before has made a tearful apology from jail in a BBC documentary. Ion Onut’s cab burst into flames and careered 100 metres along the A1(M) at Bowburn in County Durham in horrific scenes which were captured on dash cam footage in July 2021.
He was jailed for eight years and 10 months at Durham Crown Court after admitting three counts of causing death by dangerous driving. Couple David Daglish and Elaine Sullivan from Seaham, County Durham, and Paul Mullen from Washington, Tyne and Wear, died instantly.
The judge told the 41-year-old it would have been bad enough if he had fallen asleep, but Onut had been trawling the internet for sexual partners, and his last interaction on his mobile phone had come just seconds before impact. Onut agreed to be interviewed in prison as part of a BBC documentary titled Deadly Browsing: The Lorry Driver.
