One of the two lorry drivers involved in a motorway crash in August that killed eight people has been convicted at Reading crown court of causing death by dangerous driving.

Ryszard Masierak, 31, stopped for 12 minutes in the slow lane on the M1 in the early hours of 26 August 2017, despite miles of hard shoulder being available to him.

The lorry caused an obstruction on the motorway, forcing others to slow before moving around him. As minibus driver Cyriac Joseph waited for a chance to pass the vehicle, a second lorry driven by David Wagstaff, 54, crashed into the back of the minibus, forcing it under Masierak’s vehicle, jurors heard.

Court sketch of Ryszard Masierak during an earlier appearance at High Wycombe magistrates court. Photograph: Elizabeth Cook/PA

Joseph and seven of his passengers were en route to London from Nottingham to catch a coach to Disneyland. They were killed in the crash on the southbound carriageway of the M1 near Milton Keynes.

The three-lane motorway was busier than usual when the collision happened at around 3am because it was a bank holiday weekend, the trial heard.

Masierak had described himself to the jury as a “careful driver” and claimed he had attempted to pull over on to the hard shoulder as he felt unwell, but passed out and could not remember anything.



He denied he was drunk but a breath test at the scene and later at a police station showed he was “likely to have been in the region of twice the legal limit” at the time of the collision, the court heard.



The Polish national, of Evesham, Worcestershire, gave no reaction as he stood in the dock wearing a grey tracksuit and listened to an interpreter as the verdicts were given.

Masierak was found guilty of eight counts of causing death by dangerous driving, and four counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.



The unanimous verdicts, reached after almost nine hours of deliberations, mean the jury is no longer required to consider alternative charges of causing death by careless driving.

Wagstaff was also accused of the same 12 charges of death and injury by dangerous driving, all of which he denies. The jury is still considering its verdict in his case and will continue its deliberations at 10am on Wednesday.

The Fed Ex driver from Stoke-on-Trent was driving on cruise control and was on a hands-free call to a friend when he ploughed into the minibus at 56mph, the court has heard.



Wagstaff, who had been a HGV driver for 12 years with a clean licence until the crash, told the jury he could not remember what happened and put it down to a “lack of concentration”.



He has already pleaded guilty to eight charges of causing death by careless driving and four counts of careless driving.



The five men and two women killed in the crash along with Joseph were Panneerselvam Annamalai, Rishi Ranjeev Kumar, Vivek Baskaran, Lavanyalakshmi Seetharaman, Karthikeyan Pugalur Ramasubramanian, Subramaniyan Arachelvan and Tamilmani Arachelvan. Four other minibus passengers, including a four-year-old girl, were seriously injured.