Trucker who hit M5 gantry admits careless driving

The road was closed for nine hours on 2 March 2023

A lorry driver who wedged his tipper truck under a gantry on the M5 has admitted "careless" driving.

Anthony Baker, 48, of Garnett Place, Downend, Bristol, appeared earlier at Bristol Crown Court charged with dangerous driving.

He had just finished delivering building materials to a site at Cribbs Causeway when he was seen driving down the motorway with the bed of his lorry still fully raised at about 08:15 GMT on 2 March 2023, the court heard.

The back of his truck hit an overhead gantry with such force it tore the bed from the main body of the lorry. The bed became wedged vertically and the road was closed for nine hours.

No-one was hurt and Mr Baker was able to pull over on to the hard shoulder, about 100 metres further down the carriageway.

Testimonies from a number of witnesses at the time were read out in court. One driver said she had pulled over and found Mr Baker in "an absolute state of shock".

She said she heard him say: "Oh my god, I've never done this before."

She said she also heard him talking about his fears that he would lose his job.

Another witness described how he spotted the danger before the lorry struck the gantry and "immediately thought 'this is an accident waiting to happen'".

Luckily, no-one was injured

Dashcam footage was shown to the court of the moments before the crash. A huge bang was heard on the recording as the lorry unsuccessfully attempted to pass beneath the gantry.

Police at the scene carried out a breathalyser and drugs test on Mr Baker, but both returned negative results, the court heard.

Defending barrister Giles Nelson said Mr Baker had held his HGV license since 2016 and had also worked for his brother’s firm for a number of years before joining GTI Transport in October 2022.

At the time of the accident he had a clean license, Mr Nelson added, and on the morning in question he completed the same checks as he carried out every day.

While some tipper lorries, including the ones Mr Baker had used in his previous job, had alarms fitted that alerted drivers if the bed of the lorry was raised, the ones at GTI did not.

It was not a legal requirement for lorries of this type to be fitted with alarms, the court heard, but GTI Transport fitted the entire fleet with the alarms after Mr Baker’s crash.

During questioning Mr Baker said he did not check his mirrors to see the back of the truck as he had angled them to give him a wider view of the road rather than of his own vehicle.

Nor did he look out of the rear window of his cab, which could have shown him the bed of his lorry was still raised, he said.

Finally, he failed to notice a small red warning light indicating the bed was raised, he said, because the light was obscured by his arms when steering.

'You got complacent'

He said as he was driving away from the delivery site, he remembered feeling the jolt of the hydraulic mechanism and, knowing how long it took to fully lower the lorry bed, had driven off mistakenly believing it would be safely down before he joined the motorway.

During cross-examination, prosecuting barrister Robert Yates asked Mr Baker: “You got complacent, didn’t you? You did this day in, day out, and you got complacent.”

Referring to Mr Baker’s failure to check his mirrors, rear window or warning light, Mr Yates added: “That wasn’t the conduct of a careful or considerate driver was it? It was dangerous.”

Mr Baker did not directly address the claims he had acted dangerously, admitting only that his conduct had been “careless”.

In his closing arguments, Mr Nelson, defending , said Mr Baker was "not a dishonest man", but told the jury "if we are honest with ourselves, none of us are perfect drivers".

He said the crash involving the gantry "was a dangerous situation, obviously", but this did not necessarily mean "the manner he [Mr Baker] was driving in was dangerous".

Meanwhile, Mr Yates, prosecuting, said: "It would have been the easiest thing in the world" for Mr Baker to have checked the back of the lorry was down before he left the site.

He reminded the jury that to meet the threshold of dangerous driving the prosecution had to prove it was "more than everyday" carelessness.

"The prosecution says it is far more than that," he said.

The jury is expected to begin deliberations tomorrow.