A SUFFOLK lorry driver whose bad driving killed three elderly people has today been fined £1,000 and told not to drive for six months.Steven Williams, 35, was cleared by an Ipswich Crown Court jury of three counts of causing death by dangerous driving on the A144 road near Bungay on July 10 last year.

A SUFFOLK lorry driver whose bad driving killed three elderly people has today been fined £1,000 and told not to drive for six months.

Steven Williams, 35, was cleared by an Ipswich Crown Court jury of three counts of causing death by dangerous driving on the A144 road near Bungay on July 10 last year.

The jury found Williams, of Jenkins Green, Lowestoft, guilty of careless driving, a charge he had admitted at an early stage of the court proceedings.

Williams' speeding and lack of concentration resulted in his lorry jack-knifing across the road at Ilketshall St Lawrence, crushing a silver Honda Accord coming in the opposite direction.

Ivan Jeffrey, 60, and his wife Pamela, 65, and her elderly mother Constance Rome, who was in her 80s, were all killed in the crash. They were from Downham Market, Norfolk.

The court heard that Williams, a family man with two children, had been driving his articulated lorry at between 50 and 58 miles per hour when he should have been driving at no more than 40 miles per hour. He admitted he was not driving with due care and attention at the time of the crash.

Rupert Overbury, prosecuting, said just two months after this horrific accident Williams was fined for speeding at a similar speed in his lorry. He was also given three penalty points.

Ian James, mitigating, said: "Mr Williams says that often lorry drivers do feel under a certain amount of pressure from other road users. They are restricted on roads where other road users are not. When he tries to comply, other drivers drive very close to him, overtake him or become very unhospitable."

Judge Peter Thompson said the consequences of Williams' careless driving put the offence at the "top end of the scale" and he would sentence him accordingly.

Williams was fined £1,000, told to pay £200 towards court costs and he was banned from driving for six months.

Mr Thompson said: "Although the consequences were extremely serious, the sentence will not satisfy the feelings of the families. I have listened to what Mr James has said but you managed not to be pressurised by other drivers for the previous 20 years."

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