Hampshire lorry driver Tomasz Kroker killed Tracey, Josh and Ethan Houghton, as well as Aimee Goldsmith

Tomasz Kroker, 30, smashed into a row of stationary traffic on the A34 near Newbury in Berkshire, shunting the vehicle carrying Tracy Houghton, 45, her sons Ethan Houghton, 13, Josh Houghton, 11 and stepdaughter Aimee Goldsmith, 11, underneath a heavy goods vehicle.

Their Vauxhall Corsa was crushed to a third of its size, immediately killing the family, from Bedfordshire, who had been on their way home after a camping trip.

The carnage was witnessed by Aimee's 13-year-old brother Jake and their father Mark Goldsmith in the car behind, which itself was badly damaged.

Reading Crown Court heard Kroker, who had become a father himself five months earlier, had barely looked up from his phone for up to 45 seconds - an entire kilometre - before the crash.

Judge Maura McGowan said his attention had been so bad he "might as well have had his eyes closed".

Little more than an hour earlier he had signed a declaration when he picked up his lorry from Andover promising never to use a mobile phone while driving.

The Polish driver broke down at the scene in tears, crying and saying to himself: "I've killed them."

He also tried to claim his brakes failed, telling police the traffic in front of him "just stopped" and later lying to his company about whether he had been distracted, saying: "Had radio on. Not tuning it. Not on phone."

But harrowing footage from a dashboard camera showed him scrolling through music on his phone, only noticing the stationary traffic and bracing for the coming horror less than a second before impact.

Kroker, from Trajan Walk in Andover, Hampshire, sobbed again in court on Monday and held his face in his hands as pictures and footage were shown to the grief-stricken family members and survivors of the crash who were packed into the courtroom, some of whom left to avoid re-living the horror.

His own partner watched as he was jailed for 10 years after pleading guilty earlier this month at the same court to four counts of causing death by dangerous driving and one of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, serving each sentence concurrently. He was also banned from driving for seven years.

But the family dismissed the sentence - of which he will serve only half behind bars - saying it would neither ease their pain nor send a strong message to those still tempted to use phones while driving.

And Adam Pearson, who was critically injured in the crash, called for the possible maximum of 14 years to be increased as a deterrent.

Kate Goldsmith, Aimee's mother, said: "Anyone using a mobile whilst driving is guilty of dangerous driving. It only takes a second of distraction to kill someone, destroying your life, your family's lives, and those of your victim and their family."

Outlining the events of that day, prosecutor Charles Ward-Jackson said Kroker would have had an "excellent view of the road ahead" and if he had been looking would have seen the seven lorries and cars slowing as the road rose uphill in front of him.

Instead he looked at his phone for up to 45 seconds, only occasionally glancing up and unaware the traffic ahead had come to a stop.

Mr Ward-Jackson said: "It was only at 0.75 seconds before (the crash) that the dash-cam shows (Kroker) looking up with sudden horror on his face.

"By now, of course, it was too late to take any avoiding action and the camera shows him dropping the phone, gripping the wheel and apparently bracing himself for the inevitable impact."

He smashed aside Mr Pearson's car, barrelled through a Citroen, injuring the two occupants, before plunging into Mr Goldsmith's Vauxhall Zafira, demolishing a trailer carrying camping gear and bikes.

Their car was shunted into a Vauxhall Corsa in front, carrying Mr Goldsmith's partner Tracy, her two sons Ethan and Josh, and Aimee - his daughter and Jake's sister.

Mr Ward-Jackson said: "The Corsa was forced under the rear of the lorry, pushing the back of the lorry into the air and crushing the roof of the Corsa so that it is little exaggeration to say that this small car, containing four people, was, in an instant, reduced to something like a third of its natural size."

He added: "It is a particularly distressing feature that the two surviving members of the family were in the car behind, and a 13-year-old boy was forced to witness at close range the deaths of four members of close family."

In a heartbreaking victim impact statement read to the court, Ms Goldsmith spoke of her "absolute and utter devastation" at the loss of her daughter, whom she called "my hope, my happiness, my balance".

She also described how losing "in the blink of an eye" his sister Aimee and best friend Ethan had left Jake "changed forever", with little to say any more but plagued by anger, upset, nightmares and broken sleep.

Defending Kroker, James Rozier said he offered no mitigation but that the lorry driver understood the "unfathomable" harm he had caused, that Kroker himself wanted justice to be done and that he offered his "regret and remorse" to those affected.

Mrs Justice McGowan paid tribute to the "quiet dignity" shown by the family members, saying she "wholeheartedly" supported their calls for greater public awareness about the dangers of using mobile phones when driving.

But she said no powers the court had would lessen the "terrible and devastating loss experienced in those affected".

She was accompanied at the bench by the High Sheriff of Berkshire Victoria Fishburn, who had wanted to show the county's concerns about the case.