Watch: Lorry driver uses mobile phone as he smashes into line of cars

This is the dramatic moment a lorry driver smashed into a line of cars while he was using his mobile phone behind the wheel.

Police released the clip of Razvan Rusu, 30, who injured two drivers and caused a pile-up when he crashed into slow-moving traffic on the M1, in Edgware, north London.

The footage, caught on two dashboard cameras, shows the HGV driver staring at his phone as he hurtles towards traffic at around 8.20am on March 17 last year.

Dangerous: Razvan Rusu was filmed using his mobile while driving a lorry (PA)

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The driver in front managed to avoid serious injury by swerving out of the way after noticing Rusu’s fast approach.

But two other drivers were taken to hospital to be treated for their injuries after Rusu drove for more than a mile while using his phone, according to the Metropolitan Police.

Rusu, a Romanian national living in the UK, returned to his home country but was arrested on his arrival back in the UK.

He has now been jailed for eight months at Harrow Crown Court after pleading guilty to dangerous driving.

Pile up: One driver swerved out of the way as the lorry smashed into a line of cars (PA)

Detective Sergeant Stephen Pidgeon, of the Serious Collision Investigation Unit, said: “Rarely is it possible to see such a clear example of the risks some drivers are willing to take with mobile phones and the danger that using them whilst driving can cause.

"It is only down to the quick thinking of one of the drivers who moved just before impact that there weren’t multiple serious injuries or even worse.

"That the driver was willing to take these risks whilst being aware that he was being filmed is even more incredible.”

Rusu, who admitted the charge on October 10, was also banned from driving for three years and ordered to take an extended retest.