Five years - 'but the victims received life'

Builder Gary Hart, 37, of Strubby, Lincolnshire, showed little emotion as he was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court for causing what the judge described as "perhaps the worst driving-related accident in the UK in recent years".

The father-of-four was convicted last month on ten counts of causing death by dangerous driving after his Land Rover plunged off the M62 and on to the East Coast mainline last February near the North Yorkshire village of Great Heck. He was said to have fallen asleep at the wheel.

Moments later, a GNER express, travelling from Newcastle to London, smashed into the Land Rover and derailed before colliding head-on with a fully-laden coal train.

Ten men - six passengers, a buffet chef, a senior conductor on the express and both train drivers - died. More than 70 people were taken to hospital.

Some relatives of victims and survivors of the crash reacted with anger and disappointment to the length of the sentence.

Leigh Taylor, 47, from Newcastle, whose husband, Paul, died, was close to tears when she said: "I'm disappointed at the sentence. I was hoping that Hart would be given the maximum jail term of ten years.

"I'm just glad that it is all over and all I want now is to get on with my life and forget about all this."

Paul, 42, was a chef aboard the GNER train and was a former Great North Eastern Railways chef of the year award winner.

Andy Hill, who was one of two drivers in the cab of the freight train at the time of the crash, said he was not happy with the sentence.

Mr Hill, 40, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, said: "I'm not very happy. I thought it would be longer.

"I realise it might have been reduced on appeal, but I thought it would be a longer original sentence."

Detective Superintendent Peter McKay, of North Yorkshire Police, one of the leading investigators on the case, said: "Gary Hart today received five years' imprisonment. His victims received life.