Watch: Truck driver accelerates into stationary traffic after falling asleep at the wheel

Footage recorded the terrifying moment the truck crashed into two vehicles on the motorway near Birmingham. Photo / West Midlands Police

This is the terrifying moment a lorry driver crashed into stationary motorway traffic after falling asleep at the wheel.

Mariusz Wlazlo, 47, was jailed for 16 months after he ploughed his fully-laden HGV into two cars at 69km/h on a busy motorway.

Dashcam footage from the lorry and from another nearby car showed how Wlazlo was speeding up at the time of the impact, the Daily Mail reports.

A black Volkswagen Polo was shunted into a silver Toyota Verso in front before it is forced across the other two lanes near Great Barr, Birmingham.

The Toyota was spun 360 degrees off the road as the lorry swerved around a third car before coming to a halt.

Footage from the rear of the third car showed the lorry approaching at speed, smashing into both other vehicles.

Wlazlo, who was an agency driver in an Eddie Stobart vehicle at the time, was in a 40mph zone of the southbound M6.

The Polo driver, a woman in her 50s, spent weeks in hospital where she was treated for broken ribs and fractures to vertebrae.

The Toyota driver was released from hospital after treatment for back and neck pain.

The M6 southbound was closed for 90 minutes after the crash, which happened at around 9.40pm on March 15 this year.

At the scene, Wlazlo told police: "I think I went to sleep for a moment. I can't explain as I don't remember. It was like a dream."

Wlazlo, who held a full, clean UK driving licence and had no record of motoring offences in his home country of Poland, initially denied causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

He changed his plea to guilty and was jailed at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Wednesday.

Wkazlo, of Liverpool, was also banned from driving for three years and eight months, and
ordered to take an extended re-test.

PC Gareth Phillips, of the Central Motorway Police Group, said: 'The collision has had a devastating impact on the victim in the Polo.

"Although she has made a physical recovery, she now feels unable to drive on the motorway.

"Wlazlo was clearly not paying attention and indeed was accelerating into stationary traffic at the time of impact.

"It shows just how important it is to keep fully focused on the road and surrounding conditions, and to always abide by the speed limit as displayed on gantry signs.

"If the speed he had been travelling had been any higher, this collision would likely have had fatal consequences."