A former Barnsley FC striker has been jailed after killing 2 and injuring 5, due to careless driving

Steven Bennett, who played 4 games for Barnsley in 2010-11, before being released, was sentenced to 5 years in prison on 16th September 2021

On September 19th, 2019, the ex-footballer had driven to Cheshire and was on his way back to South Yorkshire, when the incident occurred.

The casualties, Northenden couple Richard Wong (62), and Angela Wong (56) were returning from their caravan in Wales that they had just bought.

Mrs Wong was driving their Toyota on the eastbound M56, with her husband in the passenger seat. At around 5:15 pm, the traffic had ended up stationary, with Mr and Mrs Wong being at the back of the queue of traffic, as they waited to come off the motorway at junction 9, the Lymm interchange, where it meets the M6, the court heard.

Bennett, driving a 10-tonne yellow Daf engineering truck, was directly behind them in the inside of two lanes on the slip-road, however, he failed to slow down and ploughed into the back of them whilst travelling at around 50mph.

The impact of Bennett hitting the car was catastrophic, causing Mrs Wong to be pronounced dead at the scene, and Mr Wong to be rushed into hospital, where he later died, as well as 5 others, left injured from the incident.

Initially, Bennett claimed that he had been distracted by a bird flying across the windscreen of the lorry, however, police inquiries later revealed that Bennet had been distracted by the GPS on his phone, as leading up to the incident Bennett’s phone had been plugged and unplugged, and the screen was found to have rotated twice in that time before impact.

Richard Barradell, defending, said Bennett's attempt to get his sat-nav working was evidence of 'someone trying to drive in an orderly manner but accepted, as a result, he 'wasn't paying attention in the crucial moments before the collision.

"He's remorseful for what he did and was terrified of having to come to court, face the family, and watch the collision," he said.