Hen party death crash driver jailed for six years
A MINIBUS driver was yesterday jailed for more than six years after causing a crash that killed a trainee nurse who was travelling to a hen party.
Bethany Jones, 18, was part of a group of 20 friends en-route to Liverpool when the accident happened on the M62.
James Johnson, 64, was driving his minibus at just 5mph because of a burnt out clutch when an articulated lorry ploughed into them.
Johnson pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving after failing to take any action to avoid the collision, ignoring warnings from passengers and other road users, who were sounding their horns, and failing to leave the motorway at the exit, pull on to the hard shoulder or use his hazard lights.
Miss Jones was pronounced dead at the scene after suffering multiple injuries. All other 19 passengers were badly hurt - some critically.
To put this bluntly, my family has been shattered
In a victim impact statement Miss Jones' father Paul, whose wife Diane and daughter Amy were left fighting for their lives by the smash, said: "I feel rubbish every day. It's the last thing I think about at night, and the first thing in the morning.
"Not much in life seems important anymore."
Miss Jones' mother said: "To put this bluntly, my family has been shattered."
Sentencing him to six years and eight months in prison Judge Guy Kearl QC said: "Your passengers were 20 females aged between 18 and 59 years.
"They were mothers, daughters, sisters and friends. Each of them had put themselves in your hands to carry them safely to their destination.
"They trusted you with their lives."
Leeds Crown Court heard the crash happened just 12 miles after the coach left the former mining village of South Elmsall, near Pontefract, West Yorks, on April 26 last year.
The women, all friends of bride Stefanie Firth, quickly became aware of signs of mechanical failure, including a smell of burning, and asked Johnson to stop the vehicle.
The driver, from Bradford, made a brief "cursory" examination but said he could not find a problem and continued the journey.
The bus had come to a "near standstill" in the inside lane when lorry driver Kevin Ollerhead, 45, crashed into the back of the vehicle, shunting it 50 yards along the road and into a barrier, leaving it lying on its side across an exit slip road.
Mr Ollerhead, of St Helens, was found not guilty of causing the death by dangerous driving last month.
He told the court he was a professional driver and there was nothing he could have done to avoid the collision.
Judge Kearl told Johnson, who has been driving coaches since 1976, he had shown a flagrant disregard for the rules of the road.
He added: "This was, quite literally, an accident waiting to happen.
"You were, in effect, together with the passengers on your coach, a sitting duck."
