This is the horrifying moment a 'selfish, arrogant' lorry driver causes a fatal crash while distracted by pornography on his mobile phone.
Neil Platt, 43, ploughed into queuing traffic on the M58 in Lancashire, tragically killing father-of-two Danny Aitchison instantly.
Today Platt - branded a 'a multi-tonne accident waiting to happen' - was jailed for ten years after he pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving.
He told police he hadn't touched his mobile phone - but damning in-cab footage from his HGV showed him repeatedly pressing the screen.
As he neared the end of his journey from Dumfries in Scotland to Liverpool on May 17 last year, Platt was looking at photographs of naked women on X - formerly Twitter - while driving at 54mph.
He therefore did not see traffic slowing in front and only attempted to brake 35 metres from Mr Aitchison's Hyundai Kona.
Platt's lorry ploughed into the back of the car, forcing it into the back of a second HGV and causing it to burst into flames.
The car was left unrecognisable and tragically the 46-year-old - who was on his way home from work - had no chance of surviving.
Lorry driver Neil Platt, 43, puts his head in his hands as he releases his HGV has ploughed into the back of queuing traffic after he became distracted by pornography on his mobile phone
Father of two Danny Aitchison, 46, died instantly when lorry driver Neil Platt smashed into his Hyundai on the M58 in Lancashire as he drove home from work on May 17 last year
Platt told officers called to the scene near Skelmersdale that he only touched his phone to check his journey time.
But an investigation found that Platt had continually accessed WhatsApp, Facebook, X and TikTok.
In-cab dashcam footage showed him touching what is understood to be his phone in a phone-holder on his dashboard, only looking up fleetingly.
Heartbreakingly, Mr Aitchison was speaking to his partner Kerry hands-free on his phone when he was fatally struck.
In a statement read to Preston Crown Court, Kerry, who is mother to his two children, Ella, 17 and 10-year-old Jack, said: 'When Danny was killed, I was on the phone to him, we were having a normal conversation about daily life, we used to speak on the phone regularly throughout the day.
'When he was hit the phone went off immediately.
'I thought his battery had run out of charge, I continually tried to call him back without success.
Neil Platt, 43, was today branded 'a multi-tonne accident waiting to happen' by a judge who jailed him for ten years after he pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving
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'I heard there had been a crash on the M58 motorway, I assumed Danny was therefore stuck in the traffic with no charge on his phone battery.
'I never thought at that time that he was involved in it or had come to any harm.
'I was in floods of tears and inconsolable. I can remember it was a nice sunny day, and I could hear the children playing in the garden.
'I continually thought I am going to walk into this house and change their lives forever.
'Telling the kids is and always will be the hardest thing I will do in my life-time.'
She added: 'I feel angry that he has lost his life in such a way especially as he was coming home from work.
'He didn't do anything wrong - he was just coming home to me and the kids.
'I loved Danny with all my heart and life will never be the same again.'
Crash victim Danny Aitchison was 'a good man, driven by family and a pure love of life', his daughter Ella, now 17, said in a moving statement to the court
Ella also gave her own moving statement to her father, a recording of which was played in court.
She said: 'Life has never been the same since he died.
'He was a good man, driven by family and a pure love of life.'
Addressing Platt, she added: 'You didn't mean to kill my dad, and all that died alongside him, but you must have known your actions could have killed someone.'
Jailing Platt, Judge Ian Unsworth KC told him: 'Your arrogant and selfish attitude to driving was quite breath-taking.
'You willingly and without any excuse chose to ignore the laws of the road.
'This was not a one-off glance on your phone... you were looking at such things as X, TikTok and YouTube.
'The collision that occurred could have happened anywhere along that journey.
'The blunt reality is you travelled well over 100 miles in what was sometimes a highly distracted state.
'In short, you were a multi-tonne accident waiting to happen.'
Afterwards Det Sgt Matthew Davidson, of Lancashire Police's Serious Collision Investigation Unit, said: 'Danny got in his car that day with the intention of making it home safely.
'Neil Platt, whose job was to drive a heavy goods vehicle, got into his cab and knowingly scrolled mindlessly on his phone as he was driving.
'The dangers of using your phone whilst driving is so often spoken about, yet Platt recklessly ignored it.
'His selfish decision took the life of a father, partner, brother and son.'
Det Sgt Matthew Davidson said the tragic case should 'send a message to anyone who thinks it is acceptable to use their mobile phone whilst driving'.
'Next time you get in a car, you're travelling, and you reach for your phone, I want you to think of Danny.
'Think of his children, his partner, his mum and his loved ones, and remember that you could also so easily cause this level of devastation, all for the sake of checking your social media.'
Platt, of Bootle, Merseyside, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing.
He was also disqualified from driving for 13 years and eight months, and ordered to take an extended retest before getting back behind the wheel.
The case comes as a shocking new study found nine in ten motorists can't complete a journey without being distracted by their phone.
Despite the threat of receiving £200 fines and six points on a licence - plus the increased likelihood of being caught by new roadside camera technology - drivers are consistently flouting the rules.
Just 10 per cent are able to go from start to finish on a trip without using their device in some way or another, analysis of driving data collated from a sample of half a million motorists over the last 12 months and shared exclusively with This is Money earlier this year revealed.
With more than 42million licence holders, it suggests 37.8million are being distracted by their phones behind the wheel.