A SUFFOLK lorry driver has been jailed for 16 months after causing a six-vehicle crash which left a woman critically injured.

Nicholas Raynham, of Woolners Close, in Stowmarket, was sentenced at Stafford Crown Court after previously admitting dangerous driving.

In addition to his prison term, the 44-year-old man was also disqualified from driving for five years.

The crash took place on the A38 in Derbyshire on December 3 last year.

Four people were taken to hospital following the accident involving two lorries and four cars near Barton-under-Needwood, which caused a 10-mile tailback.

Raynham was one of those hurt during the incident and needed to be airlifted to the Royal Derby Hospital.

At the time it was believed he sustained as many as five broken ribs as a result of the smash.

Three of the other injured people were trapped in their vehicles for an hour before finally being freed by fire crews.

A critically injured woman, 51-year-old Dawn Hill, from Tamworth, was in a Nissan Micra which was sandwiched between Raynham’s lorry and another HGV.

She was airlifted to the University Hospital of Coventry and Warwickshire with a serious head injury and suspected internal damage.

Mrs Hill survived the ordeal, but at one stage she was on a life-support machine.

The driver of the car, her 53-year-old husband Leslie, was treated at the scene for a head injury and was taken by ambulance to Burton’s Queen’s Hospital.

Following the accident, the couple’s niece, Nicky Patterson, said people driving on this stretch of the A38 should take much greater care.

Ms Patterson said: “When driving – whether it’s a bike, car or a lorry – you should be concentrating on what is going on around you.

“You have to pay attention to the road and the other cars braking in front of you and nothing else.

“My uncle is a very lucky man as he was able to walk away from this incident with just a large cut to his head and some whiplash.

“People really should take more care when on the road.”