this is bbc news, the headlines: a federal emergency has ben declared in the us state of kentucky after floods caused at least 25 deaths. the governor, andy beshear says many residents remained unaccounted for, while hundreds of homes and businesses have been washed away, in the east of the region. the white house says president biden has tested positive for covid—19 for a second time in two weeks. doctors said the 79—year—old returned the test, after four consecutive days of negative results. he is now back in strict isolation at the white house. pope francis has said health problems are likely to force him to scale down his busy international travel schedule, and may even lead to his retirement. speaking after a six—day visit

to canada, the 85—year—old pontiff said his age and frailty had led his decision. now on bbc news deadly browsing: the lorry driver. how a lorry driver, looking at dating sites while driving, went on to kill three. a warning this programme contains images some viewers may find upsetting. news report: nissan - in sunderland and rolls-royce are among the firms reporting production problems caused l by staff being forced to stay at home... . i'm on the motorway, i think you'll already have a million calls about an accident. there are car's on fire. it'll be all the services. mate, don't go any furtherl because this might blow up any second now. you can hear it popping. at least two obvious fatalities.

can you push them back a bit? yeah, yeah. of course. we willjust get rid of these lot. - everyone, clear away! there is still a risk. of further explosion! it is literally like a bomb has gone off. have you got your mobile phone with you at the moment? could i take that from you, please? you are under arrest— for causing death by dangerous driving, all right. there has been some fatalities in these cars over here. - whiskey victor 1—3 golf hotel x—ray. angry. but, yeah, i do still feel partly sorry for him, his life is ruined. so we've got one, two, three dead patients. ..that we know. i never had a chance to apologise, to say sorry to anybody.

it was quite a nice sunny day, july 15, nothing out of the ordinary really was going on that day, just another day of work, as far as we were concerned. just finishing work, it was my dog's birthday the next day, so i was going home, but by pets at home to get him some birthday presents. it was quite warm, especially when you are pregnant, so the aircon was on in the car. the weather was really nice. i had been sitting out— in the garden before i had come to work, so i was in| a really good mood. just moseying up the motorway heading to work, nothing special. 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.

saw the traffic from a good distance. put my hazard lights on, slowed down pretty much around here somewhere. because there was cars and other traffic on the inside, i i couldn't get off, so ijust had to stay where i was. i i thought to myself, "he is going fast for the distance he has got "to stop for this stationary traffic." and then i thought, "he's not going to stop." i heard a bang, that must have been when he hit a car. i thought it was my tyre. but then all of a sudden i have gone like this. and then he just literally went into the back of- the queueing traffic. the lorry is travelling 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 i 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 dial, - i couldn't do anything. anyway, eventually i managed to ring. i i am on the motorway, i think you will already| have a million calls about an accident. i are you 0k? i'm 0k. i've just seen it. it's a lorry. there is dead people, i'm sure.

it's gone up in flames and everything. - i will be honest, _ icouldn't move, which is... ..one of the things that upsets me a little bit, i because there was all these people, to my mind, - going into what was carnage, and i literally... _ i feel like i froze. a lorry has caught fire and hit something. one minute ago it happened. you have got to get there quick, people are going to be killed. i need police and fire brigade quick to the a1 northbound. did you see anyone exit the vehicles? no, it literally was just - seconds since we have gone past. the fireball was that big, i would be surprised - if anybody could have. the cars on fire. it will be all the services. my first instinct was to help the driver of the heavy goods vehicle.

there were people screaming at me to get away from the truck. but my response was, "i ain't going to let him die." then i kicked the windscreen in of the wagon and i pulled him out. out he came. didn't say anything to me, don't know what were going through his head. don't know what were going through mine at the time. are you injured at all? i'm all right, pal. obviously kind of initially just dazed. what's going on? ijust stood and looked back. it was probably only a couple of seconds, but itjust felt like i was stood still for ages. it felt like i was there five, ten minutes, taking it all in. with being pregnant and the amount of fire that was going on around, ijust thought, "i need to get away from this." you do not know if anything else is going to catch fire or explode or anything like that, so i started to move 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 going on that i needed to know about. they said, yeah, there had been a multiple vehicle rtc at bowburn, and that i was going to be first on the scene. what was noticeable at first was the smell from the fire and the heat coming from the fire. so if you imagine i have gone past, it has been on the other side of the road, gone past at some speed, and it was like opening the oven door, just that intense heat. just to confirm there is a paramedic on scene, army i believe, and there is some deceased inside the vehicle. i had arrived on scene to see that there was a deceased male in the hilux. that is when you know it is serious. try not to associate it with actually being a person. that might sound a bit cold, but, yeah, just try to think of it as just something 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, they do have a family, somebody is wanting to speak to them. any of my family. it's literally like a bomb has 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 has definitely been hit. mate, don't go any further because 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. as one of the first officers on scene, it was quite daunting situation to be faced with. we are going to have to disturb the wreckage just to ensure there is no—one else in there. i have been told there is a second fatality at the scene. there is a deceased dog here,

as well, in the carriageway, in lane two on the northbound. possible causation, obviously not confirmed at the minute. you could see the lane of traffic stationary. i started to slow down. he didn't, there was no brake lights. the next thing you know, he just careered into the whole... right, and that is the white truck that's on fire in the middle of the road? thank you very much for hanging around, mate. are you all right? are you sure? yeah. take a bit of time, 0k. have a sit down in the car, mate. 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. get people away! fertiliser! everyone, clear away! there's still a risk of a 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 continued to cool the lorry down.

i have 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, there's possibly... there's definitely two underneath the vehicle. hello. are you 0k? yeah. yeah? what kind of injuries have you got? i thinkjust — i banged my head. i knew i'd banged my head, but i hadn't realised that it had, like, cut open and stuff and i had, like, blood trickling down my face because it was that... but the pregnancy was my main concern. do you need to go to hospital? are they checking you in? yeah, because i'm pregnant, so it's best to go get checked. how far along are you? 26 weeks. 0k, yeah, absolutely- essential you get checked. i don't care about my head. i was like, ijust care about finding out that the baby's 0k 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. attention now turned

to the driver of the lorry that caused all of the damage. i didn't have time to react, you know, for such a big machine. the next thing, i was trying to come this side on the middle so not to hit another wagon. 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? everything slowed down so quick, and ijust...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 was like, is this the driver of the lorry? how can it be? he was very quiet, reserved. clearly in shock. didn't see any hazards or nothing from the drivers ahead, nothing like that. right, 0k. i just... i didn't realise. yeah.

have you got your mobile phone with you at 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. it's part of the investigation. obviously it will be quite a large—scale investigation into what has gone on. just coming up here, the traffic's been at a standstill, and he's obviously not reacted in time, so he hasjust ploughed into the back of it, basically. 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 they are examined and make sure they are not used whilst driving. what are you going to do with him? . can't leave him on his own, . say, "off you go, "we will get in touch with you i later on," can we? no, he's going to be lifted. the time is 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? at the time, i didn't know how the accident had happened. it could just be a momentary lapsing, you know, in attention. i don't know, sneezing, a wasp, something like that. i didn't know why the accident had 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 in flc? we knew at that point there was at least three people dead, and that was our main priority. it's got to be, hasn't it? we've got to get to 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 their messages before anyone else. 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 from tango... but the couple in the other car are much harder to identify. i've got the engine number off that. 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...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. 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 was just...

it would make the hairs on your arms 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 there, are you responsible for the cause of 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 58mph 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 are 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. it's wasteful of everybody's life, the people who were killed. him, his life ruined for the sake of, well, 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's just... so tragic and hard to see. it's so disturbing knowing it was me in that lorry, you know, ploughing through the cars. i still remember his reaction now, of pressing play on that cctv and watch 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 the distraction, yeah. it was a bad...bad choice, a really bad choice. and the wrong time and the wrong place. itjust happened and it's... it's... it's just...i can't turn the time back to change anything. i haven't got the power to do that, you know. it's...| 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? 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, people who were in danger and they have to suffer with flashbacks and injuries for the rest of their lives. it's hard, it's really hard. plus, living for the rest of your life with that in your head is 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 sort of gave me all the life lessons that you would expect from a parent, from a father. mum was the complete opposite. small, feisty, she had that sort of infectious laugh. she epitomised that sort of feisty, sort of strong character.

as part of this process, he asked to be interviewed. 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. are you all right? yeah. makes you realise he is sort ofjust a human. doesn't make a difference in terms necessarily of how i feel about him, but it doesn't take away from what he has done, no. but if people look at it and think, well, actually, i don't want to be that person, i don't want to be in prison, i don't want to have killed three people, i don't want that on my conscience, look at what it's

doing to this guy, look at where he is, then hopefully they'll take something away from that. regardless of how i feel about him, he has got to live with the fact that he has killed three people and affected loads of other people's lives. if we want to take one thing that's affected me most about the case, it's got to be going to the families. like. . .someone getting them 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, you kind of have a quick look, but now, i get a real anger in my stomach. i'm just, 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, i'm only using a mobile phone, i but i don't think these - people realise how severe the consequences could be. it happened to me and... here i am. 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 service personnel still think about it, driving past here and thinking about that day and the victims.

we all hear that ding on your phone and think, "oh, what's that? " i can practically guarantee whatever it was 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. you so easily could not have been here.

hello there. saturday was a warm and humid day for many of us. in places, we got to see some sunshine. in other places, the humidity gave rise to a lot of cloud, mist and murk and some outbreaks of rain, and there's more cloud and rain in the forecast for sunday across some parts of the uk. the sunniest conditions will be up to the north. the earlier satellite picture shows this pipeline of cloud, bringing some outbreaks of rain. we're starting sunday on a pretty soggy note across parts of wales, northern england, the north midlands, eastern england too. very little rain getting down into the south, but quite a cloudy, murky

start to the day here. much of the rain will tend to peter out. still a few showers into the afternoon, but a bit more in the way of brightness developing, particularly in north wales and northern england. all the while, northern ireland and scotland will have the lion's share of the sunshine. always a bit more cloud for eastern scotland. cool and fresh here — 16 for aberdeen, 18 degrees from belfast. still quite warm down towards the south and the south—east. it's triathlon and pa ra—triathlon day at the commonwealth games. quite a lot of cloud, some spots of drizzle to start. should brighten up later on. and for the women's euro 2022 final at wembley, chance for a shower. i think, on balance, it should be dry, quite warm and muggy for the kick—off. so, yes, we could just see the odd shower drifting across the south—east corner during sunday evening, but overnight, into the early parts of monday, we'll see largely clear skies overhead, light winds and, actually, particularly up toward the north, something quite cool and fresh. seven to start monday in glasgow. still 17 there in london, so still a bit of warmth clinging on in the south. monday getting off to a fine

start in most places, with some spells of sunshine, but we see another area of cloud starting to push in from the west. that'll bring rain into northern ireland through the afternoon, perhaps fringing into parts of west wales and the far south—west of england. ahead of that, actually, another relatively warm day. 21 degrees for newcastle, 26 once again in london. as we move out of monday into tuesday, we see this area of low pressure bringing frontal systems and outbreaks of rain, but not much of that rain getting down into the south, where we really do need some. in fact, southern areas through tuesday are likely to be very warm indeed — 27, maybe 28 degrees — with the rain further north and west. it is then set to turn cooler but drier for the end of the week.

before anyone else.

this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. i'm gareth barlow, our top stories: a major disaster is declared in the us state of kentucky, after floods cause at least 25 deaths. there at least 25 deaths. is no word. it's just ha rd there is no word. it'sjust hard to imagine. there is nothing really that you can do but we are just glad that we got out. back in isolation, president biden tests positive for covid—19, for the second time in nine days. pope francis says health problems are likely to force him to travel less frequently and he may even have to retire. translation: with all honesty,

it's not a catastrophe. _ translation: with all honesty, it's not a catastrophe. you - translation: with all honesty, it's not a catastrophe. you can . it's not a catastrophe. you can change your pope,