A bus driver has appeared in court charged with causing a boy's death by dangerous driving.

Twelve-year-old Jamie Wells died when he slipped under the wheels of a double decker bus he had been travelling on.

Bus driver Deborah White, 40, of Hollinside Road, Billingham, spoke only to confirm her name and address at a five-minute hearing at Teesside Magistrates Court, yesterday.

She was committed to Teesside Crown Court on June 20, where she is to stand trial.

The tragedy happened at the junction of Burlam Road and Roman Road, Middlesbrough, in March.

The youngster, who was a pupil at the town's Acklam Grange School, had been a regular passenger on the route which took him home to Linthorpe.

But he had stopped catching the bus in order to buy his mother, Patricia Bingham, a Mother's Day present with the money he saved on fares.

On the day he died he had walked most of the way home from school to Dufton Road, but had decided to catch the bus for the last two stops.

Paramedics treated the boy while he was trapped behind the front wheels of the bus.

He was taken to Middlesbrough General Hospital, but doctors were unable to save him.

His mother and stepfather were given a high-speed police escort to the hospital to be with him when he died.