Lorry driver jailed after M6 death smash

Lorry driver Robert Booth has been jailed for four-and-a-half years. (s)

THE LORRY driver who killed little Priyanka Bhogal has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison.

Robert Booth, from Town End Farm, Sunderland, was sentenced at Warwick Crown Court today (February 25) after pleading guilty to causing the death of the four-year-old, from Coventry, in a multiple vehicle collision on the M6 near Chelmsley Wood.

He was also disqualified from driving for five years.

The court heard how 63-year-old Booth smashed into slowing vehicles on the M6 near to junction 4 in the early hours of Sunday, November 27, 2011.

Priyanka suffered serious injuries when the car she was travelling in was struck by Booth's lorry.

She was rushed to hospital where she died a short time later. Seven other people involved in the collision suffered non-life threatening injuries.

The motorway was closed for more than six hours while officers from the Central Motorway Police Group, Highways Agency, fire and ambulance services dealt with the incident.

Priyanka's heartbroken family released this statement after Booth was sentenced: "The sentence handed down to Mr Booth today was another milestone in this dark chapter of our lives.

"We have had to wait and suffer to see justice done for over a year, on top of coming to terms of the loss of our daughter Priyanka under such tragic circumstances.

"We would like to thank West Midlands Police and the CPS again for their diligence and efforts to ensure justice was done.

"The sentence Mr Booth has been given is nothing compared to the sentence which we will face for the rest of our lives.

"There will never be a day when we won't remember the warmth and love we received from our daughter and the pain we feel from losing her."

They added that the trial was emotionally and physically draining, during which the family had to relive the horrific and painful events of the night again and again.

And they also hit out at at Booth for not accepting responsibility for his actions.

"We often ask ourselves how we would act had we killed a four-year-old child as a result of driving dangerously.

"We can honestly say that we would come forward and take responsibility for our mistake.

"We would want the family to know how genuinely sorry we were and do everything possible not to cause them any further pain or suffering.

"It's very difficult for us to forgive someone whose actions since that night have demonstrated no genuine remorse or regret and have been designed only to try and escape justice."

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