A LORRY driver who killed a businessman after ploughing into his van on the A38 has told the victim's wife he would regret it forever.
David Charon stood up in the dock at Derby Crown Court and asked the judge if he could address the wife of victim Stanislaw Mytych.
The 31-year-old had only been at the side of the road because he was helping an employee who had run out of fuel, when Charon's lorry hit him.
As he was jailed for 12 months, Charon told Sylwia Chruszcz: "If I could turn the clock back and not have gone to work that morning – anything to avoid this – I would do it.
"I'm afraid I cannot, and my regret for your suffering will live with me for ever. I'm sorry."
The court heard that Charon's lorry "had effectively driven over" Mr Mytych's van – which at the time was parked partly on a grass verge and partly on the northbound carriageway of the A38 between Coxbench and Ripley.
Mr Mytych, who had only been married for six months and lived in Allenton, was believed to have been getting back into his van at the time.
He died from multiple injuries at the scene.
The court heard that Mr Mytych ran a transport company in South Normanton.
After his van was hit by the lorry, both vehicles shunted into employee Andrzej Markowski's van – which ended up across the carriageway. Mr Markowski was unhurt.
Charron, 52, told police he did not see the vans, despite them both having their headlights and hazard lights on.
Collision investigators concluded that because Charon was driving at a speed of 48mph, the vehicles should have been visible to him for 35 seconds, as he travelled up the carriageway, before the impact.
But prosecutor Sarah Slater told the court that Charon said he had seen a flashing light, then everything went blank and the next thing he remembered was climbing out of his lorry.
She said: "The Crown's case is that he didn't see them, take any action to avoid them – other vehicles, quite clearly, had done so. And there's nothing to suggest he couldn't have moved over into lane two."
Miss Slater said Mr Mytych had arrived at the scene at 5.20am with some diesel after Mr Markowski rang him to say he had run out of fuel and broken down.
After the hearing, Mrs Chruszcz told the Derby Telegraph that her husband, whom she moved from Poland to Derby with eight years ago, would help anyone.
Speaking through a Polish interpreter, she said: "He would always help people – regardless of the time of day.
"He was a good, hardworking man – he worked round the clock, even on Sundays."
Sentencing Charon, Judge Jonathan Gosling said: "No stone has been left unturned by police and the team of experts to try to discover how it was you came to collide with these two vans with such catastrophic consequences."
He said that the inquiry had not found anything that could have distracted Charon.
He said: "For some reason, which no-one can discover, you simply maintained your speed and your path. This was not, I'm afraid, a momentary lapse of concentration."
He banned Charon from driving for 18 months and said he must take an extended test before he can drive again.
Charon, of Coleridge Crescent, Daybrook, Nottinghamshire, admitted death by careless driving.
He had been working for DHL and had left its base in Burton less than an hour before the collision, at about 5.30am on December 16.
In mitigation, Stuart Newsam said Charon was "very close to being a broken man" following the smash.
