A MOTORIST has told how he swerved to avoid a lorry involved in a crash which killed three members of a family.

And the van driver said his vehicle was showered with glass as the HGV went into the back of slow-moving, queuing traffic.

Neil Margerison, 23, of Ribchester Road, Clayton-le-Dale, was driving an articulated lorry on the A17 close to RAF Cranwell, Lincolnshire, when it crushed a car against another lorry.

In the car were Flt Lt Neville Rees, 43, his wife Karen, 41, and their son Andrew, 11.

All three died in the crash but Margerison denies causing death by dangerous driving and is standing trial at Lincoln Crown Court.

Van driver Simon Burrow, who was travelling in the opposite direction to the crash, on January 5 last year, said he was forced to swerve on to the verge to avoid the lorry to the rear which came on to his side of the road.

Mr Burrow told the jury: "He saw me coming and swerved on to his side of the road. I got showered with glass as I went past."

Questioned further, Mr Burrow admitted he could have been mistaken about which lorry swerved on to his side of the road.

The prosecution allege Margerison was not paying attention and hit the near-stationary line of traffic at a speed over 17mph.

But Margerison said he sneezed and Mr Rees' car ran into the back of Oldrich Frank's lorry before he was involved in the impact, the court was told.

The jury heard from Mr Frank, of the Slovak Republic, who was at the wheel of the articulated lorry travelling in front of the family's estate car.

Mr Frank, 30, denied a suggestion by John Benson QC, defending, that his lorry was "out of control".

"If the lorry wasn't controllable I would have crashed into the lorry in front of me," Mr Frank said.

But he admitted he failed to tell the police he was aware of a problem with his brakes before the accident and he had pulled over to see what it was.

Mr Frank said: "When braking the lorry had a tendency to go right. The defect wasn't the cause of the accident.

"I didn't consider it important because I was driving properly, I was in full control."

Mr Frank told the jury he did not realise there was a car behind him and he only felt one impact.