Daughter of couple killed by Scots based HGV driver issues heartfelt mobile phone plea

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A woman whose mum and step-dad were killed by a Scottish based lorry driver who was trawling an 'adult' site at the wheel has launched a campaign to stop people using their phones while driving.Mariellena Johnson lost her mum Elaine Sullivan, 57, and step-dad David Daglish, 59, on July 15, 2021, when a lorry driver ploughed into their Vauxhall Crossland on the A1(M) near Bowburn.The driver of a Toyota Hilux, Paul Mullen, 51, also tragically lost his life in the collision.Lorry driver Ion Onut, who had been living in Galashiels, was 'looking for casual sex with strangers' on the App 'Shag Today' and another called 'Mystic Match' when he crashed his Scania truck into slow moving traffic on the northbound carriageway of the road.Following a sentencing hearing in 2022, the Romanian national was jailed for eight years and 10 months.

He was also banned from driving for 14 years, Chronicle Live reports.Mariellena has now joined forces with Durham Constabulary and the county’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) to design a car sticker to discourage people from using their mobile phones at the wheel.The stickers, which are funded by the PCC’s office, are also supported by Durham County Council, who will be displaying them in their fleet of vehicles.Mariellena, who is known as Mari, said: “There is absolutely no excuse for using your phone at the wheel, one quick glance can have devastating consequences.

You see people using their phones all the time and I just want it to end.“No family should ever have to go through what we have experienced – sorting through your own parents’ belongings, clearing their home, organising their funeral, having to move on and live life without them.