you can hear it popping. be at least two obvious fatalities. can you push them back a bit? yeah, yeah, of course. we need to get rid of these lot. everyone, clear away! there's still a risk of further explosion. it's literally like a bomb's gone off. have you got your mobile phone with you at the moment? i do, yes. could i take that from you, please? you're under arrest for causing death by dangerous driving. all right? there's been some fatalities in these cars over here. whiskey, victor 13, golf, hotel, x—ray. angry. erm... but, yeah, i do still... i do still feel partly sorry for him. his life's ruined. we've got one, two, three... ..dead patients. that we know?

i never had a chance to apologise, to... ..to say sorry... ..to anybody. it was quite a nice sunny day, july 15th. nothing out of the ordinary really was going on that day. just another day at work, as far as i was concerned. just been finishing work. it was my dog's birthday the next day, so i was going home but via pets4home to get him some birthday presents. it was quite warm, especially when you're pregnant. aircon was on in the car. the weather was really nice. i'd been sitting out in the garden before i'd come to work, - so i was in a really good mood. just moseying up the motorway, heading to work, nothing special. the shift was due to start at 7.00 on the evening. 12—hour night shift finishing

at 7.00 the next morning. i remember slowing down in stationary traffic. i saw the traffic from a good distance. put my hazard lights on, slowed down, we were pretty much round here, somewhere. because there was cars and other traffic on the inside of me, - i couldn't get over to get off, so it wasjust... _ i had to stay where i was. i thought to myself, "wow, he's going fast "for the distance he's got to stop for this stationary traffic." and then i thought, "he's not going to stop." well, i heard a bang. that must have been when he's hit a car. right. i thought it was my tyre. but then, all of a sudden, i've gone like this... and then, then, he just i literally went into the back of the queueing traffic. the lorry is travelling at nearly 60mph. it crushes a car and a pick—up truck, collides with michael's hgv

and then swerves into two more cars, including the red one, driven by molly. out of nowhere, ijust felt this impact from behind. ijust remember all of a sudden hearing the kind of crashing sounds of metal... it seemed to go up over the top of...vehicles, and then skewed across in front of me... ..hit the barrier in the middle of the motorway and exploded. ..and then, all of a sudden, being stopped on the ai, just with a lot of fire around me. i said, "i'm going to ring," and i picked up my phone and i literally... my hands were shaking that much, i couldn't... i couldn't dial, i couldn't do anything. anyway, eventually, i managed to ring. i'm on the motorway. i think you'll already have

a million calls about an accident. call-handler: are you 0k? i'm 0k. i've just seen it, it's a lorry... there'll be dead people, i'm sure. it's gone up in flames and everything. i'll be honest, i could hardly... i couldn't move... ..which is... ..one of the things that upsets me a little bit, because there was all these people, to my mind, going into what was carnage. and i literally... i feel like i froze. a lorry caught fire and hit something. one minute ago, it happened. you've got to get there quick cos people are going to be killed. full request for police and fire... hello, it's the police. i need the police and the fire brigade quick for the a1 northbound. did you see anyone exit the vehicles? no, literally, it wasjust- seconds as we've gone past. the fireball was that big, i'd bej surprised if anybody could exit. the car's on fire, it'll

be all the services. my first instinct to help the driver of the heavy goods vehicle. there were people screaming at me to get away from the... ..get away from the truck. but my response was, "i ain't going to let him die." then i kicked the windscreen into the wagon... right. ..and i pulled him out. out he came. didn't say anything to me, just.. didn't know what was going through his head, didn't know what was going through mine at the time. are you injured at all? i'm all right, pal, yeah. obviously, kind of initiallyjust dazed, "what's gone on?" - i ijust kind of stood and looked. around, and it was probably only a couple of seconds, i but itjust felt like i was stood still for ages. i it felt like i was there for kind i of five or ten minutes, taking... taking it all in. with being pregnant and the amount . of fire that was going on around, l ijust thought, "no, - i need to get away from this."

you don't know if anything else. is going to catch fire or explode, or anything like that, so i started to movel in the opposite direction. in the distance, i could see a huge plume of thick, black smoke. i shouted up to communications and asked if there was something... ..something going on that i needed to know about. and they said, yeah, there'd been a multiple vehicle rtc at bowburn and that i was going to be first on scene. what was noticeable first was the smell from the fire and the heat coming from the fire. so, if you imagine, i've gone past... it's been on the other side of the road. i've gone past at some speed and it was like opening the oven door, just that intense heat. ellie, just to confirm, there's a paramedic here on scene, army, i believe, and there is somebody deceased inside a vehicle. when i'd arrived on scene to see that there was a deceased male in the hilux, that's when you know it's serious. try not to associate it with it actually being a person.

that might sound a bit cold, but, yeah, just try and think of it as just something that you have to deal with rather than it being an actual person. his mobile phone was ringing a lot, which is a shock reminder that this is a person and they do have a family, somebody's wanting to speak to them. and, you know, that could be my family. that could be me trying to ring any of my family. it's literally like a bomb�*s gone off. i could only describe what was a scene of carnage, debris all over the place. it was clearly quite a serious crash. it's definitely been hit. mate, don't go any further cos this might blow up any second now. you can hear it popping. i think everyone was looking towards us, to be told what to do or to help. and as one of the first officers on scene, it's quite a daunting situation to be faced with, to be totally honest. just for the log, we're going to have to disturb the wreckage,

just to ensure that there's no—one else in there. i'm being told that there is a second fatality at the scene. there's a deceased dog here as well, in the carriageway, in lane two, on the northbound. possible causation. obviously not confirmed at the minute. ..see the lane of traffic... yeah. ..stationary. .. ..and i started to slow down. he didn't use no brake lights, and the next thing you know, he'sjust... he'sjust careered into the whole... right, and that's the white truck that's on fire in the middle of the road? thank you very much for hanging around. are you all right? yeah. are you sure? yeah. if you need to take a bit of time, take a bit of time. have a sit down in your car, mate. all right. i think the first thing that we tried to do was to gain some sort of control over the scene itself. we've got two hgvs with fertiliser on board... radio drowns out speech get people away! fertiliser! everyone, clear away! there's still a risk of further explosion. that's going to blow up any second and it's full of fertiliser.

the fire brigade managed to put out the flames and continue to cool the lorry down. is there a fire in there? yeah. i've spoken with fire. they're burnt beyond recognition. you can barely make out the car here. it's obviously been hit by the hgv. it looks like, when we've looked at it, that there's possibly... there's definitely two underneath the vehicle. hello. hiya. are you ok? yeah. yeah? what kind of injuries have you got? i thinkjust... i banged my head. i knew i'd banged my head, i but i hadn't realised that it'd, like, cut open and stuff, - and i had, like, blood trickling down my face cos it was that... the pregnancy was my main concern. do you need to go to hospital? are they checking you in...? yeah, cos i'm pregnant, - so it's best i go get checked. how far along are you? 26 weeks. 0k. erm... yeah, yeah, absolutely essential you're checked. idon't care about my head, i was like, "i just— "care about finding out l that the baby's ok still." good news.

the driver of the silver wagon on fire has been located. fit and well. everything happened too fast. everybody pulled the brakes super fast. 0k. attention now turns to the driver of the lorry that's caused all of the damage. i didn't have time to react, you know? such a big machine. yeah, yeah. you know? and the next thing, i was trying to come this side on the middle, like... yeah. ..so not to hit another wagon and the small cars. is everybody over there ok, or...? we're trying to get the best help we can to people at the moment. hello, how are you? i'm glad i'm alive. yeah, i bet you are. what happened? well, everything slowed down so quick, and ijust... i just... i couldn't slow in time, you know? 0k. it was a bit surreal to look at the lorry

and to look at him unscathed. it's like, "is this the driver of the lorry? how can it be?" he was very quiet, reserved, clearly in shock. i didn't see hazards or nothing from previous drivers ahead, or nothing like that, so... right, ok. and ijust... ..just, i didn't realise i was... yeah. have you got your mobile phone with you the moment? - i do, yes. could i take that from you, please? yeah, of course. this is the moment that would change onut�*s life forever. and i think... it's part of the _ investigation, obviously. it will be quite a large scale - investigation of what's gone on. he'sjust been coming up here, traffic's been at a standstill - and he's obviously not reacted in time, so he'sjust ploughed| into the back of them, basically. erm... i've got his mobile... i've got his mobile phone. mobile phones are one of the things | routinely that we seize from drivers| involved in such like this and make sure that they're examined - and make sure they're not used whilst driving. - what are we going to do with him? we can't really leave him - on his own and say, "off you go, "we'll get in touch with you later on," can we? - no, he's got to be lifted. the time's 18.59, and you're under

arrest for causing death by dangerous driving. all right, there's been some fatalities in these cars over here. you do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court and anything you do say may be given in evidence. do you understand everything that i've said? 0k. at the time, i didn't know how the accident had happened, could've just be in a momentary lapse in, you know, in attention — i don't know, sneezing, a wasp, something like that? i didn't know why the accident happened and he hadn't been forthcoming in saying so. i felt a bit sorry for him. has anybody put a call in to nat, nflc? - we knew at that point there was at least three people dead and that was our main priority. it's got to be, doesn't it? we've got to get into them families and get them death messages delivered before it's out on social media. and we're always in a fight with social media to get to them families and deliver them messages before anyone else does. he's the driver of this, yeah. the relatives of 51—year—old

paul mullen from washington on wearside are quickly located and informed. 2408 for tango 1. but the couple in the other car are much harder to identify. i've got the engine... we knew that there was people within that vehicle that had perished in that fire, in the worst set of circumstances. the driver of the car and her partner are named as elaine sullivan and david daglish, both in their 50s and from seaham in county durham. one of the family pets sadly died at the scene, and we had that... the dog had a chip in it. and we got most of our identity of the people involved due to the chip that we had scanned off the vet. so, not only are we going to somebody's house and letting them know that their loved ones have died, we're getting this information, a chip in an animal that's also laid dead in the road. it was horrendous. it was absolutely horrendous. the focus of the investigation now turns to how the crash happened. and in my mind, there's either been a mechanical defect and the vehicle wouldn't stop. has he fallen asleep, the driver? or has he been distracted?

and when we get to the scene and have a look at that, it's something in my 20—year police career... ..that was just different to anything else. it would make the hairs on your arm stand on end. it's awful to think that somebody... ..has been able to just plough through them vehicles, setting people on fire and just ruining lives in an instant. the next day, onut is interviewed by the police. he's been told by his lawyer not to talk. you said, "everything slowed down so quick. "i couldn't slow in time, you know?" did you say that? no comment. i'll ask you, then, are you responsible for... ..the death of those three persons for the offence of death by dangerous driving? no comment. faced with onut�*s silence, the investigation focuses on his phone, and the evidence is damning. we could see he'd been on his mobile

phone pretty much all of the day. he was on it right to the point of impact. he was travelling at about 58 mile an hour on his mobile phone at the point that he ploughed into the back of the standstill traffic. a download of your phone's been carried out and shows usage of your phone throughout the day and the afternoon whilst driving. can you explain that to me? no comment. onut had spent most of the day browsing dating sites whilst at the wheel of his ali—tonne truck. the weight of evidence is stacked against him. at durham crown court, he pleads guilty to causing the three deaths and is sentenced to eight years and ten months injail. you must know if you're looking at your phone, especially if you're watching videos, sending messages, you must know that that is a potential consequence and you've made that choice to do it. wasteful of everybody's life, - the people who were killed, him, his life, ruined for the sake of...

..swiping right or whatever it was he was doing - on his mobile phone. onut is now injail, serving his sentence. he's decided he wants to break his silence, to explain his actions and apologise to the families. i was destroyed. you could've just taken my heart off my chest. it would probably not have been as painful as it was. honestly... ..when i seen the videos, ijust... i don't know, i can't explain it. it'sjust not... ..imaginable, so tragic and... ..and hard to see, you know? it's so disturbing knowing that was me in that lorry, you know, ploughing through the cars. i still remember his reaction now of pressing play on that cctv and watched him crumble.

you know, you can be on the phone for two, three seconds, and if you drive 60mph, you know, you can... ..travel a few hundred yards, definitely. and the phone that day was the distraction? the phone was a distraction, yeah, it was a bad... ..bad choice, really bad choice. and the wrong time and the wrong place, it'sjust happened, and it's... ..it's... ..it's just... ican't... i can't turn the time back to try to change anything. i haven't got the power to do that, you know. it's... i wish i could. if the family of elaine, david, paul... ..were to listen to this and were to listen to you today, what would you say to them? erm... there is a million things i can

tell people, you know, but i want to apologise. i want to say i'm really sorry... ..because i feel really bad for what happened. i feel bad for the people who lost loved ones, the people who were injured and they have to suffer with back flashes and injuries for the rest of their lives. it's hard, it's truly hard to accept that. plus, living for the rest of your life with that in your head, it's not easy either. i don't know what else to say. onut�*s dangerous driving cost the lives ofjunior sullivan's parents, elaine and david. he taught me pretty much more - than anyone else has ever taught me, which is what i loved about him. he had sort of given me all the life lessons thati you would expect from...a parent,

from a fathen _ mum was the complete i opposite — small, feisty. she had a sort of infectious laugh. she epitomised that sort of... that feisty, sort - of strong character. and as part of this process, he has to be interviewed. and during the interview, he said a few words about how he feels and how it's affected him. are you sure you're all right in watching it? yeah, yeah. there is a million things i can tell people, you know. but i want to apologise. i want to say i'm really sorry. all right? yeah. makes you realise he is sort ofjust a human. i doesn't make a difference in terms of necessarily how i feel— about him or whatever else, but it's... - it doesn't take away- from what he's done, no,

but if people look at it and think, "well, actually, i don't _ "want to be that person, i i don't want to be in prison, "i don't want to have killed three people, i that on my conscience. "look at what it'sj doing to this guy. "look at where he is," erm, then hopefully they'll take l something away from that. he said it himself — i he's got to live with it. and that's kind of how i see it now. regardless of how i feel. about him or anyone else, he's got to live with the fact that he's killed three people - and affected loads of other people's lives. | if you wanted to take one thing that's affected me more about the case... ..it's got to be going to the families.

like, how do you sit and show someone...them getting killed? unfortunately, it will take more |accidents for people to realise. | that's the sad truth about it. i've done it myself before. your phone flashes up, and you do, you kind of have a quick look. but now i get a real anger in my stomach, and i'mjust like... i want to shout at them and be like, "this is what can happen. "this is what you could do to someone. "you can ruin people's lives, you can end people's lives." i've issued tickets to people many times before and you get the old attitude, "well, i'm only using the mobile phone," but i don't think these people realise how severe the consequences could be. it happened to me and... ..here i am, you know? that's the reason i'm in prison. for what?

ruin your life, ruin many other people's lives. to have people like me and other emergency services who were here, still thinking about it and, you know, driving past here and thinking about that day and the victims. we all hear that ding on your phone, "oh, what's that?" i can practically guarantee whatever it was that dinged on your phone, it's not important at all, and certainly not enough to... ..risk killing people... ..ruining families, ruining your own life. i don't know what else to say.

there's my cheeky girl! god... you so easily could not have been here. hello there. the start of our weekend was quite a messy story to tell. yes, there was some warmth, some humidity across southern england. there was also some rain around. but for the majority of the country, there was a lot of this, a lot of low grey cloud.

now, the reason being for this messy story, you can see the volume of cloud that was pushing its way across the country. that was a weather front. it was bringing some rain, the best of the break certainly to the south and also across parts of eastern scotland as well. this weather front will continue to bring some nuisance rain before it clears through the day on sunday. so that means we could see a little bit of rain across east anglia and south—east england, not too much, but the potential there for some welcome rain and then gradually brightening up through the latter stages of the day. the best of the sunshine likely to be through scotland, northern england and northern ireland. here, not quite as warm, 19 or 20 degrees, highest value still with that humidity a little, 26 in the south—east corner. that means that we will continue to see a good deal of dry weather potentially for the final, for the euro 2022 final, obviously england v germany, hopefully with some glimpses of sunshine before we close out the day. now, as we go into the early hours of monday morning, a few scattered showers just lingering in the far south—east.

it stays relatively mild, 11 to 17 degrees across england, slightly cooler further north under those clearer skies in scotland. there will be a good deal of sunshine to look out for first thing on monday. but gradually we're going to see it clouding over with the winds increasing and some rain arriving across western fringes by the end of the day. but in the best of the sunshine, we should still see those temperatures peaking into the mid 20s. for the commonwealth games, there is the potentialfor some rain as that frontal system slips its way steadily eastwards on tuesday. it's not going to be too cold and the rain clears through to a better day, albeit cloudy one on wednesday. so here is that area of low pressure and the weather front moving its way through on tuesday. again, tuesday is quite a messy story to tell. the rain will be fairly showery in nature as it drifts its way steadily eastwards, leaving a scattering of showers to the far north—west behind. here, highs of 20 to 22 celsius, but we could see 27.

that's into the 80s across the far south and east. by wednesday, we've still got that low pressure dominating things up into the north and a trailing weatherfront, but it will weaken off substantially. so maybe a few isolated showers and still relatively warm air across much of england and wales. again, temperatures likely to peak into the mid to high 20s a north—westerly direction making it feeljust that little bit cooler and fresher into the far north—west. now, as we move out of thursday towards the weekend, this area of high pressure is going to start to build. ahead of that, on thursday, it stays dry. there will be quite a lot of cloud around from time to time, not quite as warm as it has been for many. we're looking at 13 to 20 degrees into the north. perhaps we mightjust see 26 somewhere in the far south—east. but the high pressure is then going to anchor itself to the west of the uk. the position of the high is important because if it sits out to the west, the wind direction coming from that cooler source from the north,

so it will start to feel just that little bit fresher. and there could be some rain around for some, but not for all. so we keep that dry theme going. there'll be some rain in the north and maybe through east anglia on friday. but generally for all of us, because that wind direction comes from the north, it will just feel a little bit cooler and fresher.

less than 2a hours to go now until the biggest football match of their careers — england prepare to take on germany in the euros final. the lionesses are on the verge

of making history by becoming the first england football team to win a major