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

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

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 in West Yorkshire 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.

The jury of eight women and four men took just two hours to find Mr Ollerhead not guilty at Leeds Crown Court.

He was also cleared of an alternative charge of causing death by careless driving.

The coach driver, James Johnson, 64, of Whytecote End, Wyke, Bradford, pleaded guilty to causing Miss Jones's death by dangerous driving at an earlier hearing.

He will be sentenced on November 14.