A YORK lorry driver was today starting nine months in jail for doing a U-turn on the A64 near the city and killing a pensioner.

Anthony Jackson, 41, was also banned from the roads for two years at Sheffield Crown Court and ordered to retake his driving test.

Last month a jury at York Crown Court unanimously convicted him of causing death by dangerous driving.

They heard that Ronald Dakin, 74, of Lebberston, near Scarborough, died when his BMW car crashed into Jackson's lorry when the lorry was stationary or moving very slowly and partially blocking the eastbound carriageway near the Tadcaster Road turn-off.

The lorry driver, of St Paul's Terrace, Holgate, claimed he had fallen asleep at the wheel after he turned on to the A64 off the northern ring road at Copmanthorpe.

He denied causing death by dangerous driving.

But the prosecution convinced the jury he had been performing a U-turn at a farm access gap.

The jury heard that Jackson had been heading for London, but a diversion forced him on to the A64 eastbound carriageway instead of the westbound carriageway he had intended to use.

The jury also heard that Mr Dakin was almost certainly travelling under the 70mph speed limit and regularly used the A64. His passenger, Lisa Thompson, 27, was injured in the crash.

Updated: 11:28 Saturday, February 09, 2002