A lorry driver has been jailed after he killed a father-of-two on the M20 in Kent while on a video call to his wife.
Zvonko Tomisa, 58, was travelling at approximately 55mph when he crashed into Arran McManus’s car in standstill traffic on November 25 last year.
Maidstone Crown Court heard on Monday that Tomisa attempted to brake just one second before impact.
The court was told of multiple incoming and outgoing calls, messages, and video calls from Tomisa’s phone in the hour leading up to the fatal collision.
He was actively engaged in a video call with his wife immediately before and at the moment he struck the local football coach’s Nissan Qashqai at around 48mph.
Mr McManus, 36, who was on his way to work, suffered “not survivable” injuries after his vehicle was crushed into another lorry in front of him.
Tomisa, from Videovec, Croatia, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for death by dangerous driving. He was also banned from driving for 14 years and four months, with the proceedings aided by an interpreter.
There had been signs for drivers to slow down to 50mph more than 1.5 miles before Tomisa crashed into Mr McManus, because of a build-up of traffic that may have been linked to an earlier incident that morning.
Sentencing him, Judge Catherine Moore said: “It is abundantly clear your entirely senseless actions meant your attention was distracted.
“You plainly assumed your driving would be unaffected by your mobile telephone use and that somehow the rules did not apply to you.
“You were not concentrating on the road, your failure to do so had tragic and entirely avoidable consequences.”
A statement from Mr McManus’s partner, Ashleigh Devlin, paid tribute to him as clever, witty and “always making us laugh”, adding: “Even mundane moments like shopping in Tesco or cleaning the house were fun with him.
“He was one of the good ones for sure.”
She added their family has lost a devoted father, active mentor and “central figure in our community”.
On behalf of Tomisa, the court heard he deeply regrets “all his decisions” on that date and is deeply remorseful and traumatised by the events.
His defence barrister told the court Tomisa accepts he was “deeply distracted” on that date, mainly because his wife was having an operation.
But Judge Moore said: “It may well have been you were discussing a medical matter or a matter about which there was some anxiety, but that is no excuse.”
In a letter from the defendant read out to court, he said he took responsibility for everything that happened.
He said: “There is not a word that can dilute the pain and the loss that family went through after the person lost their life.
“I am carrying the weight of this tragedy every day and I’m truly compassionate and empathise with their suffering.
“It was never my intention to cause harm to anyone and especially with these consequences.”
Tomisa had changed his plea to guilty to death by dangerous driving on April 9 this year.
The court heard he had been a professional truck driver since the age of 20 and for most of his 38-year career he had driven on foreign roads.
He had arrived in the UK via Dover about an hour before the fatal collision.
Kent Police chief inspector Craig West said Mr McManus’s death was “completely avoidable”.
He said: “Mr McManus was a huge part of the Ashford community and his death has had a devastating impact.
“If anything good can come from this tragic incident, I hope it’s that people look at Mr McManus’s death and realise the detrimental impacts that can be caused by using a phone while driving.
“We have a zero tolerance policy for this at Kent Police, and will do everything we can to ensure no other family has to go through what Mr McManus’s family is having to endure.”
