A POST Office van driver has been fined £1,000 for a motorway crash which led to the death of a workmate.

Nathan Rialos, 28, was charged with causing the death of 29-year-old Jason Wike, of Blackburn, by dangerous driving when he ran into a line of traffic queuing for roadworks on the M6 at Southwaite, just south of Carlisle, in December 1999.

But a jury at Carlisle Crown Court found him not guilty of that charge, and convicted him of careless driving instead.

Rialos, of Preston, admitted he was to blame for the accident, but said it happened only because he missed the warning signs telling him to slow down.

Mr Wike, who lived in the Livesey area of Blackburn, suffered serious head injuries in the crash and had to be cut from the wreckage. He died in the Cumberland Infirmary the day after the crash.

Mr Wike was a keen sportsman and Blackburn Rovers fan who played football with local teams and was also interested in golf and body building.

He joined the Post Office when he left school and progressed from being a postman to working in the Cashco division, the armoured delivery section of the Post Office.

Mr Wike and Rialos took turns at driving the van and guarding the cash in the back.

After the accident, it was found he had the rare AB blood type, which only three per cent of people in Britain have.

His family decided to donate his organs and tissue to help other people.

At the time, his brother Mark, of Livesey Branch Road, said: "Jason was a genuinely nice man, he touched everyone who met him and everyone loved him.

"We didn't know if he carried a donor card or not but we knew he would have wanted to help people if he could."

Mr Wike was not married but was devoted to his family including his parents Anne and Darroll, his brother Mark, sister Michelle and nephew Harry.