A LORRY driver who “completely obliterated” the back of a car when he smashed into it has been jailed for causing death by dangerous driving.

Jose De Sousa, of Uxbridge Road, Feltham, Middlesex, had 12 seconds in which he failed to brake before fatally crashing into a broken-down car on the M40 in Oxfordshire.

The 50-year-old went on trial this week at Oxford Crown Court, but on Tuesday he changed his plea and admitted causing the death of Ausra Budreckaite by dangerous driving on March 28 last year.

Prosecutor Damian van Duyvenbode said the collision happened at about 2.30am on the motorway’s southbound carriageway between junctions nine at Bicester and 8a at Wheatley.

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He said the Peugeot 406 carrying Miss Budreckaite and driven by her partner, Tomas Priluckis, had suffered engine failure because of an oil leak.

Passing sentence, Judge Peter Ross said expert evidence proved the car had its headlights, tail lights and hazard warning lights on at the time of the accident. He said De Sousa was travelling at about 55mph, which would have given him 12 seconds to see their car and apply the brakes.

When the lorry hit the rear of the Peugeot it was “completely obliterated by the impact” and Miss Budreckaite was killed instantly, the judge added.

He said: “Mr Priluckis, in his witness statement, describes the horror of the scene after the crash. His description is simply too terrible to repeat.”

He said to De Sousa that no-one knows why the crash took place, but it was similar to an accident the lorry driver had in 2008, when his vehicle left the road and he told police officers he had felt “a bit sleepy”.

After both crashes De Sousa removed his tachograph card, which records the lorry’s activity, and so this time he also pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice.

Judge Ross said it showed a “pattern of behaviour” and sentenced De Sousa to four-and-a-half years in prison, as well as banning him from driving for 10 years.