Lorry driver given suspended sentence for crushing teenage motorcyclist

Summarised from 3 outlets · 4 reports · Updated 14 Oct, 13:33 · Archive

A 56-year-old lorry driver has received a six-month suspended sentence for killing 17-year-old motorcyclist Zebedee Watson at a roundabout in Poole.

Paul Graham, 56, of Stoborough, was given a six-month suspended sentence at Weymouth Magistrates' Court after pleading guilty to causing death by careless driving. The sentence was suspended for 18 months and he was also ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work. Zebedee Watson, 17, was struck from behind by Graham's DAF lorry on 28 November as he waited stationary at the roundabout on Holes Bay Road, Poole, preparing to enter Safety Drive Roundabout. The teenager had passed his driving test at the first attempt nine days before the collision and was weeks away from his 18th birthday.

District Judge Orla Austin described it as "a serious failure of observation towards a stationary and vulnerable road user". Dashcam footage shown in court captured Graham singing along to the radio moments before the collision. The judge asked Graham whether he had anything to say, and he replied that he was "distraught for the family". Graham stopped immediately after the collision, got out and checked what had happened, then reversed the lorry so the boy could be reached. Emergency services pronounced Watson dead at the scene.

In victim statements, Watson's mother Alison Jones said: "He was the boy who made me a mum" and described the pain of losing him as "torture and totally unbearable". His father Shane Watson said the hardest part now is "the silence and the absence he has left behind". More than 250 people attended Watson's funeral. More than 3,500 people have since signed a petition to install traffic lights at the roundabout.

How it is being reported

• ‘Kind and loving’ teenager who died in crash remembered after lorry driver sentencedA teenager who died in a road collision has been remembered as a 'kind and loving' young man with a promising future, after the lorry driver involved in his death was sentenced.Bournemouth Echo · 14 Oct, 13:26
• Tributes to 'warm and kind' teen killed in crash as lorry driver sentencedThe family of a teenager who sadly died in a fatal road traffic collision in Dorset have paid a heartfelt tribute to their loved one after the lorry driver involved was sentencedDorset Echo · 14 Oct, 13:22
• Suspended sentence for HGV driver over teen's deathA lorry driver receives a suspended jail sentence for killing 17-year-old motorcyclist Zeb Watson.BBC Dorset · 14 Oct, 13:02
• Lorry driver sentenced after crushing 17-year-old motorcyclist to deathA lorry driver who crushed a teenage motorcyclist to death after a “serious failure of observation” has been given a suspended prison sentence.Bournemouth Echo · 14 Oct, 12:21

In this story: Paul Graham · Zebedee Watson · Poole · Holes Bay Road · Safety Drive Roundabout

This summary was written by AI from the headlines and standfirsts above, and states as fact only what at least two outlets report. How we use AI · Report a problem