A LORRY driver whose momentary lapse led to another man’s death has been jailed for 30 months.

Ian Stride, 45, was also banned from driving for five years and ordered to take an extended test before he regains his licence.

Stride, of Roundway Road, Clayhall, Ilford, Essex, claimed he failed to see two cars parked on the hard shoulder because he had a sneezing fit while driving along the M20 near Ashford.

But Judge Anthony Balston told him at Maidstone Crown Court: “I take the view that the basis of the jury’s conviction was that you must have gone to sleep, and that they rejected your evidence that you sneezed."

The judge also told Stride: “This is indeed a tragic case, primarily for the family of the man who was killed, but I accept also that it is tragic for you.”

He said he had given consideration of the possibility of an alternative to a jail sentence, but saw no reason to depart from the usual penalty for cases of this kind.

The man who died, 62-year-old Richard (Dickie) Foord was among a group of seven work colleagues from Ashford who were heading for Greenwich to attend their firm’s Christmas party on December 16, 2000.

When the limousine hired to take them there broke down, the friends were forced to organise alternative transport.

Mr Foord was sitting in a Peugeot 405, one of two cars sent to replace the Lincoln limousine, when it was hit by the lorry on the hard shoulder of the motorway outside Ashford.

Foord was later to say he suffered a sneezing fit as he drove his empty petrol tanker along the M20 after a trip to the Eurotunnel.

An HGV driver for more than 20 years, he claimed he was not feeling tired on the day of the accident, and during his evidence, denied a suggestion from prosecutor Carl Hackman that he had fallen asleep.