Two lorry drivers are due to face trial on Thursday for a horrific crash on the M1 in which eight people died.

Polish national Ryszard Masierak, 32, and Briton David Wagstaff, 53, will appear at Reading Magistrates’ Court, accused of causing the collision on August 26 last year.

Minibus driver Cyriac Joseph and seven of his Indian passengers were killed on the southside of the motorway near Milton Keynes as they travelled to London from Nottingham.

M1 accident
The scene of the crash on the M1 last August (@ItsOllieYT/PA)

The dead passengers, five men and two women, were Panneerselvam Annamalai, Rishi Ranjeev Kumar, Vivek Baskaran, Lavanyalakshmi Seetharaman, Karthikeyan Pugalur Ramasubramanian, Subramaniyan Arachelvan and Tamilmani Arachelvan.

Four others were seriously hurt.

Masierak, of Evesham, Worcestershire, and Wagstaff, of Stoke, both deny eight counts of causing death by dangerous driving and four counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

Wagstaff previously pleaded guilty to eight lesser charges of causing death by careless driving and four counts of careless driving.