A tipper driver who denied dangerous driving after crashing his truck into an overhead gantry on the M5 has been convicted of the charge following a trial.
The incident occurred on March 2, 2023, and resulted in the M5 being closed for about 14 hours due to concerns that the gantry might collapse.
A jury at Bristol Crown Court was shown CCTV and dashcam footage of Anthony Baker’s 32-tonne HGV driving along the M5 southbound with the tipper bed raised before the collision.
Avon and Somerset Police received calls from the public about the raised truck bed before it struck the overhead gantry.
The impact caused the truck bed to detach from the rest of the lorry, and one of the matrix signs fell onto the motorway. Fortunately, no one was injured.
During a police interview, the 48-year-old Baker admitted he did not usually check if the lorry bed was lowered after making a delivery but acknowledged that he should have. He added that he did not notice any signals from other motorists to pull over and was unaware of any mechanical malfunction.
PC Ian Hudson of the roads policing unit said, “The consequences of this collision could have been catastrophic.”
Baker has been released on bail and is scheduled for sentencing on August 2.
