MORE than 100 bus drivers stood in silence to pay their last respects to a colleague who was crushed to death during a strike.

Frank Dean of Town Walk, Blackburn, died on the picket line at the Stagecoach Ribble depot in Blackburn when he was trapped between a bus and a wall.

He was one of six official pickets who had been allowed to stand at the gates of the depot during the first of a series of one-day strikes over pay and conditions.

Yesterday his friends and colleagues lined the Boulevard in Blackburn, as Mr Dean's funeral procession passed.

Traffic came to a stand-still as the flower-filled hearse passed by followed by a Rolls-Royce carrying Mr Dean's family, and a procession of cars.

Stagecoach Ribble maintenance worker Bill Livesey said: "Drivers and other staff all came to pay their last respects to Frank. Some came in on their day off."

Workers from Morrisons, where Mr Dean's partner Susan Duffy worked for 10 years, also stood in silence on the street as the hearse passed.

One friend said: "We knew Frank from when he used to come in the store and we've come out today to support Susan.

"She worked here for a long time and she has been in to see us since Frank died. It is such a tragedy." His funeral was at St Mark's Church before cremation at Pleasington.

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