Gary Hart, the driver convicted of causing the deaths of 10 people in the Selby rail crash, was today jailed for five years.

Hart, 37, of Strubby, Lincolnshire, showed little emotion as Mr Justice Mackay sentenced him at Leeds Crown Court.

The father-of-four was convicted last month of causing death by dangerous driving after a jury decided that he had fallen asleep at the wheel of his Land Rover before it plunged off the M62 and on to the East Coast mainline last February near the North Yorkshire village of Great Heck.

Hart had told the court how the vehicle, which was towing a trailer loaded with a Renault estate car, crashed through branches and fences before coming to rest with its front end on the tracks.

He described how he scrambled frantically out of the driver's seat and was on the bank talking to a police operator when a GNER express, travelling from Newcastle to London, smashed into the Land Rover.

The train, which was travelling at 117mph, sliced the front off the vehicle as Hart stood just feet away but carried on down the tracks for several hundred yards with only its front set of wheels derailed.

But as the express passed over a set of points it was pushed further out of line just as a coal train heading for Ferrybridge power station approached loaded with 1,600 tonnes of coal.

The two trains collided to produce a scene of complete devastation with the shattered carriages of the passenger service strewn around surrounding fields and gardens.

Ten men - six passengers, a buffet chef, a senior conductor on the express and both train drivers - died. More than 70 people were taken to hospital.

The investigation into the crash showed there was nothing wrong with either the train or the track. Hart's decimated Land Rover was also painstakingly examined but experts found no faults.

The court was told how detectives focused on Hart's driving and particularly whether he could have fallen asleep at the wheel.

The jury heard how Hart, who was separated from his wife Elaine at the time of the crash, had not slept since he had a brief nap the afternoon of the day before the crash.

He admitted that he had spent most of the night before he set out on his journey on the phone to a woman called Kristeen Panter.

Mrs Panter, from Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, first contacted Hart eight days earlier through an Internet dating agency.

Phone records produced in the case showed he had spent more than five hours on the phone to Mrs Panter that night.

Later, Hart admitted to the jury he was intending to meet her in person for the first time on the night the crash happened.

He told the court he was "buzzing with

excitement" about this meeting as he made his way from his home in Lincolnshire to Wigan, Greater Manchester, where he was working.

Hart said he did not know why his Land Rover left the M62 as he approached the bridge over the East Coast main railway line in deteriorating weather conditions.

He told police he heard a bang from the back of his vehicles and then fought to control it as it veered off the road.

He refused to admit he had fallen asleep at the wheel.

He told the jury he was used to having little or no sleep as he had an unusual life which he led at "1,000 miles per hour".

But police accident experts told the court the tyre tracks left by the Land Rover and its trailer showed no signs of erratic movement or a sudden swerving.

Instead they said they showed a gradual drift which is characteristic of accidents caused by falling asleep at the wheel.

Sleep expert Professor Jim Horne told the jury that in his opinion Hart had "insufficient" sleep before embarking on his journey.

Hart, who is a keen amateur field archer, runs his own groundworking business from his home.

He has four daughters - Adrienne, 11, from a previous marriage, Megan, five, and Charlotte, six, whom he had with Elaine, and one step-daughter, 13-year-old Laura.

Hart was found guilty on December 13 last year of 10 counts of causing death by dangerous driving, by majority verdicts, after a 12 day trial at Leeds Crown Court.

Speaking outside the court Andy Hill, who was the train driver who survived the crash said he was not happy with the sentence.

Mr Hill, 40, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, said: "I'm not very happy. I thought it would be longer.

"I realise it might have been reduced on appeal, but I thought it would be a longer original sentence."

Mr Hill was one of two drivers in the coal train cab when the crash happened. The second driver, Stephen Dunn, died.

Mr Justice Mackay said the Selby rail crash was "perhaps the worst driving related incident in the UK in recent years".

He continued: "In my judgment, you (Hart) were not the victim of the Selby rail crash ... you were the cause of it."

The judge told Hart that he had to assess the level of culpability of blame involved in his driving, as well as the extent to which the consequences of his actions should be taken into account.

But most importantly, the judge said he believed Hart was "fighting sleep back" during his journey on the M62.

"You either actually knew or could be expected to have known from feelings of sleepiness that you were experiencing that you were at risk of falling asleep and, notwithstanding that, you carried on."

He said Hart had maintained his "arrogant claim" that he was not like other people and could drive safely with little sleep, but his claim had been "rudely disproved" by the jury's verdict.

Hart stood in the dock with his hands clasped in front of him and looked straight at the judge.

He wore a black leather jacket, dark T-shirt, dark trousers and white trainers.

Earlier the judge said Hart would be haunted by what happened for the rest of his life.

"I'm satisfied that you will live with the

consequences of what you did that day for the rest of your life but so too will, to a much greater extent, all the relatives of the 10 men who died and the survivors."

The judge added: "Any accident you chose to put yourself into was almost inevitable; which form it took, how it turned out, was largely a matter of how the dice fell."

After the case had finished the two detectives who led the investigation gave their reaction on the steps of the court with around 40 relatives of victims and survivors standing quietly behind them.

A North Yorkshire police spokesman told reporters massed outside that none of the survivors wished to make statements and asked the press to respect their privacy and not approach them.

Detective Superintendent Peter McKay, of North

Yorkshire Police, said he did not wish to comment on the length of the prison sentence but added: "There are some people standing behind me today who do not think it is long enough."

Mr McKay then repeated his comments which he made after the end of the trial that Hart was a "mobile catastrophe waiting to happen".

He added: "He could have avoided that and he will have to live with that for the rest of his life."

Mr McKay continued: "It was never the objective of the investigating team to convict Gary Hart.

"Our objective was to find the truth.

"I think we have done that."

He added: "Gary Hart today received five years imprisonment. His victims received life."

Asked whether he thought five years was long enough, Mr McKay replied: "No matter what the sentence was today, it will not bring lives back.

"It's impossible to measure misery or to transpose that into a sentence.

"He (the judge) was left with an impossible task."

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-94274/Selby-crash-driver-jailed-years.html

On 30/10/2023 09:25 am, Simon Misogyny wrote:

> Gary Hart, the driver convicted of causing the deaths of 10 people in the Selby rail crash, was today jailed for five years.
> Hart, 37, of Strubby, Lincolnshire, showed little emotion as Mr Justice Mackay sentenced him at Leeds Crown Court.
> The father-of-four was convicted last month of causing death by dangerous driving after a jury decided that he had fallen asleep at the wheel of his Land Rover before it plunged off the M62 and on to the East Coast mainline last February near the North Yorkshire village of Great Heck.
> Hart had told the court how the vehicle, which was towing a trailer loaded with a Renault estate car, crashed through branches and fences before coming to rest with its front end on the tracks.
> He described how he scrambled frantically out of the driver's seat and was on the bank talking to a police operator when a GNER express, travelling from Newcastle to London, smashed into the Land Rover.
> The train, which was travelling at 117mph, sliced the front off the vehicle as Hart stood just feet away but carried on down the tracks for several hundred yards with only its front set of wheels derailed.
> But as the express passed over a set of points it was pushed further out of line just as a coal train heading for Ferrybridge power station approached loaded with 1,600 tonnes of coal.
> The two trains collided to produce a scene of complete devastation with the shattered carriages of the passenger service strewn around surrounding fields and gardens.
> Ten men - six passengers, a buffet chef, a senior conductor on the express and both train drivers - died. More than 70 people were taken to hospital.
> The investigation into the crash showed there was nothing wrong with either the train or the track. Hart's decimated Land Rover was also painstakingly examined but experts found no faults.
> The court was told how detectives focused on Hart's driving and particularly whether he could have fallen asleep at the wheel.

[ ... ]

You have excelled yourself.

That was *twenty-two* years ago (the sentencing, not the incident).

There are people over on the uk.railway NG who still have orgasms when
they think of the case and its outcome.

QUOTE: Gary Hart, the driver convicted of causing the deaths of 10 people in the Selby rail crash, was today jailed for five years. ENDS

About the same time as "Rhiannon" - but he's totally forgotten now, unlike the tipsy teenager playing chicken with the traffic.

Simon Mason <swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:

> QUOTE: Gary Hart, the driver convicted of causing the deaths of 10 people
> in the Selby rail crash, was today jailed for five years. ENDS
>
> About the same time as "Rhiannon" - but he's totally forgotten now,
> unlike the tipsy teenager playing chicken with the traffic.

“Howard, of Buckingham, Buckinghamshire, hit Rhiannon as she walked with
friends in Buckingham in April last year.

He shouted at the youngsters to "move, because I'm not stopping" but rode
into Rhiannon, Aylesbury Magistrates Court heard.

The court heard that he could have swerved to avoid the girl”

--
Spike

QUOTE: Gary Hart, the driver convicted of causing the deaths of 10 people in the Selby rail crash, was today jailed for five years. ENDS

Been to this site many times - it was at" GREAT HECK"!

BOOM BOOM.

On 30/10/2023 04:22 pm, Simon Mason wrote:

> QUOTE: Gary Hart, the driver convicted of causing the deaths of 10 people in the Selby rail crash, was today jailed for five years. ENDS

Except... he wasn't.

It was in 2002.

QUOTE: He described how he scrambled frantically out of the driver's seat and was on the bank talking to a police operator when a GNER express, travelling from Newcastle to London, smashed into the Land Rover. ENDS

What did the insurance say about your story?

Simon Mason <swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:
> QUOTE: He described how he scrambled frantically out of the driver's seat
> and was on the bank talking to a police operator when a GNER express,
> travelling from Newcastle to London, smashed into the Land Rover. ENDS
>
> What did the insurance say about your story?

What’s it to you?

--
Spike

On 30/10/2023 06:24 pm, Simon Misogynist wrote:

> QUOTE: He described how he scrambled frantically out of the driver's seat and was on the bank talking to a police operator when a GNER express, travelling from Newcastle to London, smashed into the Land Rover. ENDS
>
> What did the insurance say about your story?

Of whose story do you attempt to speak?

If you actually know, that is.

QUOTE: Ten men - six passengers, a buffet chef, a senior conductor on the express and both train drivers - died. More than 70 people were taken to hospital. ENDS

Not even a record - 33 people were killed in the 1975 Dibbles Bridge coach crash.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Dibbles_Bridge_coach_crash

Simon Mason <swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:
> QUOTE: Ten men - six passengers, a buffet chef, a senior conductor on the
> express and both train drivers - died. More than 70 people were taken to hospital. ENDS
>
> Not even a record - 33 people were killed in the 1975 Dibbles Bridge coach crash.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Dibbles_Bridge_coach_crash

In the face of the postings and comments made by you and others over what
you see as inadequate sentencing not taking into account the suffering of
the victims or their families, it is surprising that you posted this link
as it contains the following:

QUOTE The proprietor of the coach company, Norman Riley, was later fined
£75 (equivalent to £669 in 2021[7]) for running a motor vehicle with
defective brakes.[8] UNQUOTE.

NOTE that Riley wasn’t punished for the consequences but for the offence.
Just keep that in mind when you next start wailing over sentences.

I’ve made a note of the link and the passage quoted above so will be able
to remind you of it.

--
Spike

On Tuesday, October 31, 2023 at 4:12:55 AM UTC, Simon Mason wrote:
> QUOTE: Ten men - six passengers, a buffet chef, a senior conductor on the express and both train drivers - died. More than 70 people were taken to hospital. ENDS
>
> Not even a record - 33 people were killed in the 1975 Dibbles Bridge coach crash.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Dibbles_Bridge_coach_crash

On 27 May 1975, a coach carrying elderly passengers crashed at the bottom of a steep hill at Dibble's Bridge, near Hebden in North Yorkshire, England. Thirty-three people on board were killed, including the driver, and thirteen others injured. It was the worst-ever road accident in the United Kingdom by number of fatalities.

Simon Mason <swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tuesday, October 31, 2023 at 4:12:55 AM UTC, Simon Mason wrote:

>> QUOTE: Ten men - six passengers, a buffet chef, a senior conductor on
>> the express and both train drivers - died. More than 70 people were
>> taken to hospital. ENDS

>> Not even a record - 33 people were killed in the 1975 Dibbles Bridge coach crash.

>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Dibbles_Bridge_coach_crash

> On 27 May 1975, a coach carrying elderly passengers crashed at the bottom
> of a steep hill at Dibble's Bridge, near Hebden in North Yorkshire,
> England. Thirty-three people on board were killed, including the driver,
> and thirteen others injured. It was the worst-ever road accident in the
> United Kingdom by number of fatalities.

QUOTE The proprietor of the coach company, Norman Riley, was later fined
£75 (equivalent to £669 in 2021[7]) for running a motor vehicle with
defective brakes.[8] UNQUOTE.

--
Spike

On 31/10/2023 04:12 am, Simon Mason wrote:

> QUOTE: Ten men - six passengers, a buffet chef, a senior conductor on the express and both train drivers - died. More than 70 people were taken to hospital. ENDS
>
> Not even a record - 33 people were killed in the 1975 Dibbles Bridge coach crash.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Dibbles_Bridge_coach_crash

That set a new record.

The previous record holder was another bus, early 1950s in Chatham, Kent.

<https://volunteercadetcorps.org/royalmarinescadets/history/chatham/#:~:text=The%20Chatham%20Bus%20Disaster%20occurred,in%20any%20British%20road%20accident>

SFW

The obvious thing to do is ban buses, coaches and chav-bikes.

On 31/10/2023 11:18 am, Simon Mason wrote:

> On Tuesday, October 31, 2023 at 4:12:55 AM UTC, Simon Mason wrote:
>> QUOTE: Ten men - six passengers, a buffet chef, a senior conductor on the express and both train drivers - died. More than 70 people were taken to hospital. ENDS
>>
>> Not even a record - 33 people were killed in the 1975 Dibbles Bridge coach crash.
>>
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Dibbles_Bridge_coach_crash
>
> On 27 May 1975, a coach carrying elderly passengers crashed at the bottom of a steep hill at Dibble's Bridge, near Hebden in North Yorkshire, England. Thirty-three people on board were killed, including the driver, and thirteen others injured. It was the worst-ever road accident in the United Kingdom by number of fatalities.

I expect you want the driver exhumed and beheaded?

Or at least disqualified from driving for life?

On 31/10/2023 11:20 am, Spike wrote:
> Simon Mason <swldxer1958@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Tuesday, October 31, 2023 at 4:12:55 AM UTC, Simon Mason wrote:
>
>>> QUOTE: Ten men - six passengers, a buffet chef, a senior conductor on
>>> the express and both train drivers - died. More than 70 people were
>>> taken to hospital. ENDS
>
>>> Not even a record - 33 people were killed in the 1975 Dibbles Bridge coach crash.
>
>>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Dibbles_Bridge_coach_crash
>
>> On 27 May 1975, a coach carrying elderly passengers crashed at the bottom
>> of a steep hill at Dibble's Bridge, near Hebden in North Yorkshire,
>> England. Thirty-three people on board were killed, including the driver,
>> and thirteen others injured. It was the worst-ever road accident in the
>> United Kingdom by number of fatalities.
>
> QUOTE The proprietor of the coach company, Norman Riley, was later fined
> £75 (equivalent to £669 in 2021[7]) for running a motor vehicle with
> defective brakes.[8] UNQUOTE.

I expect that that was the only offence he had committed.

QUOTE:He told the court he was "buzzing with excitement" about this meeting as he made his way from his home in Lincolnshire to Wigan, Greater Manchester, where he was working. ENDS

The silly fool called himself a "hunter gatherer" type in court.

On Monday, October 30, 2023 at 9:25:43 AM UTC, Simon Mason wrote:
> Gary Hart, the driver convicted of causing the deaths of 10 people in the Selby rail crash, was today jailed for five years.
>
> Hart, 37, of Strubby, Lincolnshire, showed little emotion as Mr Justice Mackay sentenced him at Leeds Crown Court.
>
> The father-of-four was convicted last month of causing death by dangerous driving after a jury decided that he had fallen asleep at the wheel of his Land Rover before it plunged off the M62 and on to the East Coast mainline last February near the North Yorkshire village of Great Heck.
>
> Hart had told the court how the vehicle, which was towing a trailer loaded with a Renault estate car, crashed through branches and fences before coming to rest with its front end on the tracks.
>
> He described how he scrambled frantically out of the driver's seat and was on the bank talking to a police operator when a GNER express, travelling from Newcastle to London, smashed into the Land Rover.
>
> The train, which was travelling at 117mph, sliced the front off the vehicle as Hart stood just feet away but carried on down the tracks for several hundred yards with only its front set of wheels derailed.
>
> But as the express passed over a set of points it was pushed further out of line just as a coal train heading for Ferrybridge power station approached loaded with 1,600 tonnes of coal.
>
> The two trains collided to produce a scene of complete devastation with the shattered carriages of the passenger service strewn around surrounding fields and gardens.
>
> Ten men - six passengers, a buffet chef, a senior conductor on the express and both train drivers - died. More than 70 people were taken to hospital..
>
> The investigation into the crash showed there was nothing wrong with either the train or the track. Hart's decimated Land Rover was also painstakingly examined but experts found no faults.
>
> The court was told how detectives focused on Hart's driving and particularly whether he could have fallen asleep at the wheel.
>
> The jury heard how Hart, who was separated from his wife Elaine at the time of the crash, had not slept since he had a brief nap the afternoon of the day before the crash.
>
> He admitted that he had spent most of the night before he set out on his journey on the phone to a woman called Kristeen Panter.
>
> Mrs Panter, from Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, first contacted Hart eight days earlier through an Internet dating agency.
>
> Phone records produced in the case showed he had spent more than five hours on the phone to Mrs Panter that night.
>
> Later, Hart admitted to the jury he was intending to meet her in person for the first time on the night the crash happened.
>
> He told the court he was "buzzing with
>
> excitement" about this meeting as he made his way from his home in Lincolnshire to Wigan, Greater Manchester, where he was working.
>
> Hart said he did not know why his Land Rover left the M62 as he approached the bridge over the East Coast main railway line in deteriorating weather conditions.
>
> He told police he heard a bang from the back of his vehicles and then fought to control it as it veered off the road.
>
> He refused to admit he had fallen asleep at the wheel.
>
> He told the jury he was used to having little or no sleep as he had an unusual life which he led at "1,000 miles per hour".
>
> But police accident experts told the court the tyre tracks left by the Land Rover and its trailer showed no signs of erratic movement or a sudden swerving.
>
> Instead they said they showed a gradual drift which is characteristic of accidents caused by falling asleep at the wheel.
>
> Sleep expert Professor Jim Horne told the jury that in his opinion Hart had "insufficient" sleep before embarking on his journey.
>
> Hart, who is a keen amateur field archer, runs his own groundworking business from his home.
>
> He has four daughters - Adrienne, 11, from a previous marriage, Megan, five, and Charlotte, six, whom he had with Elaine, and one step-daughter, 13-year-old Laura.
>
> Hart was found guilty on December 13 last year of 10 counts of causing death by dangerous driving, by majority verdicts, after a 12 day trial at Leeds Crown Court.
>
> Speaking outside the court Andy Hill, who was the train driver who survived the crash said he was not happy with the sentence.
>
> Mr Hill, 40, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, said: "I'm not very happy. I thought it would be longer.
>
> "I realise it might have been reduced on appeal, but I thought it would be a longer original sentence."
>
> Mr Hill was one of two drivers in the coal train cab when the crash happened. The second driver, Stephen Dunn, died.
>
> Mr Justice Mackay said the Selby rail crash was "perhaps the worst driving related incident in the UK in recent years".
>
> He continued: "In my judgment, you (Hart) were not the victim of the Selby rail crash ... you were the cause of it."
>
> The judge told Hart that he had to assess the level of culpability of blame involved in his driving, as well as the extent to which the consequences of his actions should be taken into account.
>
> But most importantly, the judge said he believed Hart was "fighting sleep back" during his journey on the M62.
>
> "You either actually knew or could be expected to have known from feelings of sleepiness that you were experiencing that you were at risk of falling asleep and, notwithstanding that, you carried on."
>
> He said Hart had maintained his "arrogant claim" that he was not like other people and could drive safely with little sleep, but his claim had been "rudely disproved" by the jury's verdict.
>
> Hart stood in the dock with his hands clasped in front of him and looked straight at the judge.
>
> He wore a black leather jacket, dark T-shirt, dark trousers and white trainers.
>
> Earlier the judge said Hart would be haunted by what happened for the rest of his life.
>
> "I'm satisfied that you will live with the
>
> consequences of what you did that day for the rest of your life but so too will, to a much greater extent, all the relatives of the 10 men who died and the survivors."
>
> The judge added: "Any accident you chose to put yourself into was almost inevitable; which form it took, how it turned out, was largely a matter of how the dice fell."
>
> After the case had finished the two detectives who led the investigation gave their reaction on the steps of the court with around 40 relatives of victims and survivors standing quietly behind them.
>
> A North Yorkshire police spokesman told reporters massed outside that none of the survivors wished to make statements and asked the press to respect their privacy and not approach them.
>
> Detective Superintendent Peter McKay, of North
>
> Yorkshire Police, said he did not wish to comment on the length of the prison sentence but added: "There are some people standing behind me today who do not think it is long enough."
>
> Mr McKay then repeated his comments which he made after the end of the trial that Hart was a "mobile catastrophe waiting to happen".
>
> He added: "He could have avoided that and he will have to live with that for the rest of his life."
>
> Mr McKay continued: "It was never the objective of the investigating team to convict Gary Hart.
>
> "Our objective was to find the truth.
>
> "I think we have done that."
>
> He added: "Gary Hart today received five years imprisonment. His victims received life."
>
> Asked whether he thought five years was long enough, Mr McKay replied: "No matter what the sentence was today, it will not bring lives back.
>
> "It's impossible to measure misery or to transpose that into a sentence.
>
> "He (the judge) was left with an impossible task."
>
> https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-94274/Selby-crash-driver-jailed-years.html

Can I suggest you buy shares in a company called Amazon, they only cost $0.54 per share today (2001). I have a feeling they will be worth quite a bit more in 2023.

On Saturday, November 4, 2023 at 10:06:57 AM UTC, Prince Keldar wrote:

> >
> >
> > https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-94274/Selby-crash-driver-jailed-years.html
> Can I suggest you buy shares in a company called Amazon, they only cost $0.54 per share today (2001). I have a feeling they will be worth quite a bit more in 2023.

Someone called "Rhiannon" gave me the same tip around the same time and unlike Hart gets regurgitated at regular intervals.