Man jailed for killing Manchester couple on M56 by ploughing into their car
A husband and wife from Manchester were killed when a former professional footballer ploughed into them after fiddling with his phone on the motorway.Richard and Angela Wong, from Wythenshawe died after a lorry drove into the back of them at 50mph on the M56, causing a horrific pile-up.Today, Steven Bennett, 29, was jailed for five years for causing death by dangerous driving after a court heard he had been using his phone as a sat nav and had been trying to re-plug it in the seconds before the collision.Bennett, who played a handful of games for Barnsley in the Championship during a 'promising' professional career a decade ago, had driven from south Yorkshire to Cheshire and was on his way back on the day of the tragedy, September 19, 2019.The couple Richard, 62, and Angela Wong, 56, were returning from their caravan in Wales they had just purchasedMrs Wong was driving their Toyota on the eastbound M56 with her husband in the passenger seat. At around 5:15pm, the couple found themselves at the back of a queue of stationary traffic as they waited to come off the motorway at junction 9, the Lymm interchange, where it meets the M6, the court heard.Bennett, driving a 10 tonne yellow Daf engineering truck, was directly behind them in the inside of two lanes on the slip-road, however he failed to slow down and ploughed into the back of them whilst travelling at around 50mph.
The impact caused a seven vehicle pile-up and in addition to the Angela and Richard, four other people were also injured.
Brian Williams, prosecuting, told Chester Crown Court.
Both Mr and Mrs Wong suffered 'catastrophic injuries' as a result of the crash.Mrs Wong was pronounced dead at the scene.Mr Wong was rushed to hospital where he died three days later.
In court, both of the couple's children, Robert and Charlotte Wong, described sitting at their father's bedside and having to take the 'extremely difficult' decision to switch off his life-support machine.In a police interview, Bennett said he had been 'momentarily distracted' by a bird flying across his path.However his phone had been propped up on the dashboard behind the steering wheel, Mr Williams said.And a forensic analysis of it showed it had been plugged and unplugged, and that the screen orientation had changed twice in the time Bennett was approaching the Wong's car.Cheshire Police added afterwards that their investigations found Bennett was using the phone 'on a regular basis' on his journey from Liverpool.Bennett from Barnsley, pleaded guilty two counts of causing death by dangerous driving on the day a trial was due to begin last month.The court heard in 2013 he was sentenced to three years in prison for robbery and affray.And in June 2018 he had also been convicted of driving whilst using a mobile phone.Bennett was sentenced to five years in prison. He will serve half before released on licence.He was also banned from driving for four years and must take an extended re-test before he can get his licence back.Sentencing, Judge Simon Berkson said:
Speaking about Mr and Mrs Wong he said they were "very much loved" by their family members and were "preparing and looking forward to their retirement which they will now sadly never have."Speaking after the case, Police Sergeant Andrew Dennison, from Cheshire Police’s Serious and Complex Collision Investigation Unit said:
“While no sentence will ever bring Richard and Angela back, I hope that the conclusion of this case will provide them with some closure.“I also hope that this case will act as a warning to others." He added: