A lorry driver who was distracted by a mobile phone game when his articulated lorry ploughed into queuing traffic on the A14 in Suffolk has been jailed for 11 years.

Christopher Cooke, 55, of Shillitoe Close, Bury St Edmunds, was sentenced at Ipswich Crown Court on Thursday 12 November after a jury found him guilty of causing death by dangerous driving. He was also disqualified from driving for seven years, with an extended period of five and a half years.

Cooke was driving a Renault articulated heavy goods vehicle, towing a trailer carrying a full container, on the A14 eastbound at Beyton on the evening of 30 March 2023. Ahead of him, 53-year-old Paul Cobbold was driving a Citroen Dispatch van.

Van crushed between two lorries

Just after 6pm, a Mercedes HGV in front of Mr Cobbold stopped as traffic built up ahead. Mr Cobbold braked in time, but Cooke failed to respond to the slowing traffic. He braked sharply and tried to swerve, but his lorry struck the back of Mr Cobbold's van and pushed it into the rear of the stationary Mercedes, crushing it in the process.

Cooke's HGV then struck the Mercedes before hitting the central reservation and tipping over onto its nearside. Mr Cobbold, a grandfather of five, was declared dead at the scene.

Phone game was running at the moment of impact

After Cooke was arrested, analysis of his mobile phone found that a game called Chief Almighty was running on the screen, and that the phone was unlocked and in focus at the time of the collision. At trial, Cooke admitted he had driven carelessly but denied the more serious charge of causing death by dangerous driving. The jury convicted him by a majority verdict of 10 to 2.

Detective Constable Mark Simpson, of Suffolk Constabulary's Serious Collision Investigation Unit, said the crash was a completely avoidable collision and a death that should not have occurred. He said both Mr Cobbold and the driver of the HGV in front of him had responded to the queuing traffic in time, slowing safely as required.

"Despite his elevated vantage point, Christopher Cooke failed to respond to the traffic ahead and was quite clearly distracted," DC Simpson said. "The evidence from his mobile phone leaves us in no doubt that this distraction was caused by the game that was running on it."

He added that police could also prove Cooke had been using the phone during the same journey the night before, and said the case showed why officers regularly run campaigns about the dangers of using a mobile phone while driving, with the risks multiplied many times in a vehicle the size of an HGV.

Family praised for their dignity

DC Simpson said the consequences for Mr Cobbold's family had been devastating, as he had been making his way home from work and never made it because of someone else's reckless behaviour. He thanked the family for the patience and dignity they had shown throughout what he described as a lengthy and complex investigation and legal process.

"I hope the sentence handed down today will serve as both a warning and a deterrent to other drivers of the real and present risk caused by driving whilst using a mobile phone," he said.