A mum died after a lorry driver ploughed into the back of her car while it was broken down in the middle of a motorway.
Shirley-Ann Dumbuya, 38, was on her way to a nursing exam, on January 21 last year, when her car suddenly went into total engine failure.
It ended up stuck between a busy lane and hatchmarks bordering a slip road on the M60 near Manchester.
Mrs Dumbuya called her husband Peniel ‘in a complete panic’ and he said to put her emergency lights on and try to get out of the car if possible while he called Green Flag.
But the roadside assistance company refused to help, saying they would only send someone to remove the car if it was parked on a hard shoulder – which Mrs Dumbuya could not get to.
Some 19 drivers spotted Mrs Dumbuya and managed to avoid her but lorry driver John Bowers, 33, did not realise her Kia Ceed was stationary.
He ended up crashing his 18-tonne DAF skip wagon into the back of Mrs Dumbuya’s car and she tragically died.
By the time Mr Dumbuya arrived at the scene, he found ambulances, police cars and fire engines surrounding his wife’s car.
The couple’s 19-year-old daughter Alice said: ‘You can only imagine how that must have felt, to see your wife there, still in the car at the time and you can only imagine the pain he must have been going through.’
Bowers initially pleaded not guilty to causing death by careless driving but changed his plea to guilty 18 months later.
Speaking directly to him, Miss Dumbuya said: ‘We know you did not get up that morning and decided you were going to kill someone, and we know it was a total accident.
‘But you must take responsibility for what has happened and not drag it out for 18 months.’
Judge Anthony Cross QC also slammed Green Flag for its ‘systematic failure’ in refusing to help Mrs Dumbuya, from Moston, Manchester.
He called for ‘some form of enquiry’ over Green Flag not even calling 999 ‘because it was obvious that Mrs Dumbuya would have been panicking and wondering whether to stay or leave the vehicle’.
Her daughter Miss Dumbuya told Manchester Crown Court her family’s lives have been ‘shattered by something that was so avoidable’.
Mr Dumbuya tried to go back to his job as a bus driver after the tragedy but he ‘went into a panic’ when he saw a skip wagon driving towards him
He had to pull over and get a replacement driver to finish his route.
Mr Dumbuya has not been able to return to work since.
Bowers was jailed for six months, suspended for 12, and banned from driving for three years.
Green Flag said: ‘Green Flag was very sorry to hear of this tragic accident. We were not part of the court proceedings but will be reviewing how we handled this case.
‘If a customer contacts us to say their car has broken down on the live lane of a motorway it is our policy, which follows National Highways guidance, that the call handler asks them to immediately call 999 for emergency assistance so the police can offer specific health and safety guidance to the driver directly.
‘Green Flag contacts National Highways so the motorway can be closed to enable recovery of the vehicle.’
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