A TRUCKER who killed a young man in a ‘catastrophic’ four-vehicle crash on the M6 near Shap has failed in an attempt to be allowed back behind the wheel.

Colin Steele, 43, was jailed for four years in May 2008 for causing the death of Pierce Armstrong, 20, from Barrow, by dangerous driving.

Pierce died when his father’s Shogun, in which he was a passenger, overturned several times after being hit by Steele’s 18-tonne lorry as it swerved to avoid a slow-moving load between Penrith and Tebay on Monday, March 26, 2007.

Four other members of Pierce’s family were badly hurt in the crash, and another driver – Kerry Robinson, 21, of Tebay – escaped unscathed when her Ford Fiesta was caught up in the collision.

At Carlisle Crown Court on Tuesday Steele, of Glencairn Tower, Motherwell, applied to Judge Paul Batty QC to have his four-year driving ban cut short so he can get another job.

His barrister said that, since being released from prison on parole last May, Steele had been working as a warehouseman, operating a forklift truck.

“But his hope for the future is that he will regain his HGV qualifications,” the lawyer said. “He wants what most people want – to make a better life for himself, both at work and with his family.”

Prosecutor Gerard Rogerson said that as a result of Steele’s driving there had been “what can only be described as carnage” on the motorway.

He said Steele’s lorry had veered across the road after hitting a broken down vehicle, which was being towed on a low loader, then crashed into the Shogun being driven by Pierce’s father Raymond, before hitting the Fiesta.

Pierce, who was returning with his family from a christening in Ireland, died while trapped in the wreckage of the Shogun.

His father, a Barrow businessman, was the only member of the family to escape being badly hurt.

Pierce’s youngest brother Cavan, then four, suffered brain damage and was left paralysed down one side of his body.

Another brother Hal, 17, suffered a fractured spine, leg, face and jaw and, though once a county rugby trialist and a successful under-16 footballer, can no longer play sport.

A third brother, Hayden, then 13, suffered a broken foot and his mother Jayne, 46, had both legs and her pelvis broken, Mr Rogerson said.

On Tuesday Judge Paul Batty QC dismissed Steele’s application, saying justice demanded that Steele should serve the whole period of disqualification he had imposed on him. He said: “This court has to act not only fairly but compassionately to all concerned in such a human tragedy as this.

“But the circumstances drive me to the irresistible conclusion that it would not be fair and proportionate to remove any of the disqualification that I imposed.”