THE driver jailed for causing the deaths of ten people in the Selby train crash lost a Court of Appeal bid to challenge his conviction yesterday.

Three judges in London refused Gary Hart's appeal launched after he was found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving at Leeds Crown Court and sentenced to five years' imprisonment in January last year.

A jury decided in December 2001 that Hart, 37, had fallen asleep at the wheel of his Land Rover before it plunged off the M62 and on to the main East Coast line on February 28 that year, near the North Yorkshire village of Great Heck.

Moments later, the Land Rover was hit by a passenger train at 117mph, which then ploughed into a train laden with 1,600 tonnes of coal.

Among those who died were the driver and chef on the GNER train, both from Newcastle, and the conductor from Whitley Bay. A York man and a Teesside University professor were among the passengers killed.

At his trial, Hart, of Strubby, Lincolnshire, denied the charges and falling asleep, but was convicted by a 10-2 majority.

The two grounds for appeal involved the fact that the jury at the trial were not made aware of the charge of causing death by careless driving and that witness evidence given at the time made the verdict unsafe.

Rejecting that second ground, the judges ruled that there was no reason to regard the verdicts as unsafe and that there was ample material before the jury entitling them to reach the conclusions they had.

As to the trial judge's decision regarding the alternative of careless driving, Lord Justice Rose said: "The crucial question on which the judge was entitled to focus the jury's attention was whether the applicant had indeed fallen asleep.

"To that end, as it seems to us, not only was he entitled not to leave the alternative of careless driving to the jury, it was in all the circumstances the proper course to follow."