Trucker watched sci-fi while driving

A 37-year-old Shropshire trucker was caught watching a cult sci-fi programme on his laptop computer by police while he was driving for 25 miles along the M6 motorway in Cumbria.

Benjamin Trotsman, 37, from Bridgnorth, was spotted driving erratically by a concerned truck driver in the early hours of December 11 last year.

A witness told police a HGV travelling northbound on the M6 was veering across the carriageway over a 25-mile stretch between Kendal and Penrith in Cumbria.

A Cumbria Police spokesman said: "The driver was seen to be watching a film on a laptop computer that was situated on the dashboard.

"He appeared oblivious to other motorists, and continued to drive in an erratic manner, speeding up and slowing down, and crossing on occasions on to the hard shoulder.

"This continued from the Kendal area to where the motorway passes Penrith, where police officers observed the lorry, which was still obviously being driven in an inattentive manner."

Police examined the laptop and found that Trotsman appeared to have been watching a number of episodes of Battlestar Galactica. He pleaded guilty to driving dangerously at Penrith Magistrates Court on August 22.

Sergeant Paul Brown, of Cumbria Police, said: "The consequences of this level of inattention could have been horrendous."

Trotsman will be sentenced at Penrith Magistrates Court today.