A BIN LORRY driver who tipped his truck over, throwing a colleague to his death on a motorway, has been spared jail. 

While driving too fast around a corner in Chingford, Gerald Ball, 51, flipped the heavy vehicle onto its side and crashed into metal barriers on the North Circular on September 9, 2014. 

None of the three garbage loaders were wearing seatbelts and Kazys Kaniauskas, 54, was killed when he fell out of the window and on to the road.

When the lorry flipped, the bin loaders all fell against the left hand door of the vehicle and Mr Kaniauskas was thrown out of the passenger window.

Roadside and air ambulance services attended but Mr Kaniauskas was pronounced dead at the scene an hour later at 9.26am.

Ball, of Hazel Way, Chingford, admitted causing death by careless driving but was cleared of causing death by dangerous driving on Thursday (July 14) at Snaresbrook Crown Court.

Ball was handed a nine month sentence suspended for two years and was ordered to carry out 200 hours unpaid work and 20 days rehabilitation. 

Ball, who never had an accident in 24 years as a driver before the incident, accepted he made an “error” as he took a turn too quickly.

The crew emptied bins along 13 streets and as a result the smaller compartment designated for household waste was full and needed emptying.

They were driving along Hall Lane at 30mph towards the tip nearly a quarter of a mile away, reducing this speed to roughly 23mph when reaching the junction with Walthamstow Avenue. 

It then crashed through barriers onto the North Circular.

Ball added: "Yes I was in a hurry to get to get the job done as quickly and as safely as possible.

“I wanted to get to the tip before we had breakfast and before it got too busy but I was in no rush.

“I don't feel responsible for his death totally, the fault for his death is his for not wearing a seatbelt and the other men pushing him out the window.”

Defending, Paul Rogers, urged Judge Oscar Del-Fabbro to see it as a “momentary loss of concentration.”

Judge Del-Fabbro told Ball: "It is a minor miracle that no one else was hurt or killed, either in the truck or outside of it on the North Circular.

“It was a catastrophic accident.”

The judge called Mr Kaniauskas an energetic man who never missed a day of work and left behind sons and a wife of 27 years.

He added: “This was an absolute tragedy for his family, his friends and his work colleagues.

“You have accepted your driving that day fell well short of the acceptable standard and as a result or your actions that day you have deprived a loving wife of her husband and the sons of their father. 

“Nothing I say here today can change that. The court does not attempt to put a price on the life that has been lost.

“It was a needless loss of life and it is an accident for which you must take the blame.

“In my opinion a sentence of imprisonment is inevitable but I have taken into account your age and good driving history coupled with your early plea of guilty.

“I am imposing a sentence that will be suspended.”

Ball was also disqualified from driving for two years.