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A horror crash on the M1 in which a lorry driver, on a handsfree call for nearly an hour, smashed into the back of a minibus killing eight people, is one of the “worst ever seen”, a top paramedic has said.

Mark Begley, South Central Ambulance Service’s (SCAS) head of operations for Milton Keynes and Aylesbury Vale, was the incident commander at the scene of the accident in the early hours of August 26, 2017, and said it was the worst he had seen in his 21 years of service.

David Wagstaff, 54, was on the phone to a fellow lorry driver with his vehicle on cruise control when the crash happened near Newport Pagnell.

Wagstaff crashed at 56mph into a minibus driven by Cyriac Joseph, who was waiting with his hazard lights on for the chance to go around a second lorry, driven by Ryszard Masierak.

When Wagstaff ploughed into the minibus, which was taking passengers from Nottingham to London to catch a coach to Disneyland, it was forced into and under Masierak’s lorry.

The horror crash unfolded after Masierak stopped his vehicle on the motorway for 12 minutes, despite miles of hard shoulder available.

He was found to be twice the legal alcohol limit at the time of the crash and was jailed for 14 years, after being found guilty of eight counts of causing death by dangerous driving, and four counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

FedEx driver Wagstaff, who had been a HGV driver for 12 years with a clean licence until the crash, was jailed for three years and four months.

Now, four members from the SCAS NHS Foundation Trust have received a special commendation from the High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire for the “outstanding care and professionalism” they displayed at the scene.

Mr Begley said: “In the ambulance service, we do get sent to some very traumatic incidents but this collision was particularly challenging and probably the worst I have seen in my 21 years’ service.

“[Colleagues] Amanda Joyce, Dr Neil Thomson and Simon Lukas were part of a team of over 40 ambulance personnel – not just from SCAS but also colleagues from East of England and East Midlands Ambulance Services – who all displayed incredible care and professionalism in the most difficult circumstances.

“We accepted the High Sheriff’s commendation on behalf of everyone in the ambulance service who attended this terrible and, most regrettably considering the devastating consequences, completely avoidable incident.”

The commendations were presented by Professor Ruth Farwell CBE, High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire, which cited how the staff “demonstrated service of the highest order by displaying outstanding care and professionalism when attending to critically injured people at the scene of a fatal collision”.