A LORRY driver has been cleared of causing the death of an 18-year-old in a crash on the M62 between his truck and a coach taking a group of women to a hen party.

Kevin Ollerhead, 45, was found not guilty of causing the death of Bethany Jones by dangerous driving.

The coach driver, James Johnson, 64, of Whytecote End, Wyke, pleaded guilty to death by dangerous driving at an earlier hearing.

Mr Ollerhead had denied the charge and tried at Leeds Crown Court where a jury cleared him after two hours of deliberations today.

Miss Jones was among a group of 20 women travelling to the hen party in Liverpool in April last year when their coach was hit on the M62 near Castleford by an articulated vehicle driven by Mr Ollerhead.

She died after suffering multiple injuries. All of the other passengers on the coach, who were from the Pontefract area, were injured, some severely.

Mr Ollerhead, of of Lincoln Crescent, St Helens, Merseyside, was also found not guilty of an alternative charge of causing death by careless driving.

Johnson will be sentenced on November 14.