A LORRY driver who took his eyes off the road and caused a crash which resulted in the death of a Westhoughton man, has walked free from court.

Michael Turner, aged 43, was cleared of causing death by dangerous driving, but convicted on a reduced charge of careless driving. He was fined £1,500 and banned from driving for six months.

Turner was driving on the M60 at Barton Bridge when he swerved violently to avoid a broken down vehicle after seeing it at the last minute.

Turner's Mercedes truck then ploughed into the central reservation and crashed into a VW Golf being driven in the opposite direction by 27-year-old Simon Pennington, of Westhoughton.

Today Mr Pennington's mother Irene, of Bromley Cross, called for a change in the law to give judges more power to punish drivers who cause serious accidents.

She said: "I feel there's a gap in the law. It seems wrong that you can have someone who bumps into the back of someone and they get the same punishment. But whatever the punishment in my son's case, it would not have brought Simon back."

The tragedy happened in March last year when the wheels of the Turner's Mercedes truck locked and it skidded across all six lanes of the busy motorway shortly before the rush hour. It ploughed through the central reservation, crashing into Mr Pennington's VW Golf before hitting a Ford Escort and smashing through the crash barriers on the other side.

Turner's truck was then left teetering over the edge of the bridge more than 90ft above the Manchester Ship Canal. Mr Pennington, a father of one, suffered severe head injuries and died three days later in Hope Hospital, Salford. The Escort driver, Craig Rostron, of Bury, received minor injuries.

Police investigations revealed the broken-down Volvo lorry was wider than the hard shoulder and was overhanging into the slow lane of the motorway.

The court was told that Turner should have seen the lorry from 1,300 metres away and had good time to make room to pass it, but he was not looking ahead properly.

It was claimed he may have been looking at a map, making a phone call, or reaching for a sandwich or drink in the moments leading up the accident.

In passing sentence at Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester Judge Barry Woodward paid tribute to Mr Pennington's family and friends, who sat in the public gallery throughout the trial.

He said: "In all my time that I have been sitting at this court I have never before seen such fortitude of these people when the circumstances of this case must have caused considerable anguish."

He told Turner: "The penalty will in no way match up with the consequences of your bad driving that day. I sincerely hope that anyone hearing of this case and the consequences of this bad driving will take particular care on the roads."

Mr William Baker, prosecuting, said, in the run-up to the crash, other vehicles heading the same way saw the broken down lorry and were slowing down, expecting Turner to pull out.

But Turner, of Mallard Drive, Warrington, failed to indicate and apparently spotted the stationary vehicle as he was about to hit it from behind.

He slammed on the brakes and turned the steering wheel, just five-and-a-half metres away from the Volvo lorry, causing his lorry to swerve to the right.

Moments after the impact, Turner got out of his cab and pointed out the Volvo lorry to an off duty policewoman, saying: "One minute he wasn't there, the next he was. I was going to hit the back of it."

A tachograph reading taken from his vehicle revealed he had been travelling at 56mph at the time he slammed on the brakes. Turner was treated in hospital himself after being left shaken by the accident.

Turner said he had seen the Volvo lorry from up to 400 metres away and thought it was moving slowly up the hill of the bridge as it was heavily-laden with goods.

He said he had kept glancing in his mirror for a gap so he could pull out to overtake but, by the time he got near to the Volvo, he realised it had broken down.

There were cars all around him and no gap and so he had to take evasive action.

He denied he had been reading a map and said he was "devastated" by the tragedy.

He told the court: "It is something I think of every day -- I will never forget it. His family and I have to live with that every day. An apology is not enough."

Mrs Pennington said after the verdict her family wanted to try and get on with their lives.