THE parents of a 20-year-old man killed when his car collided with a school bus have slammed the "lenient" sentence given to the bus driver.

Susan Jamieson, whose son Robert died in the accident at the notorious Britannia junction, in Oswaldtwistle, in February, ran from Hyndburn Magistrates' Court in tears after Fernando Page was fined £200 and was banned from driving for nine months.

Speaking after the hearing her husband Bob, of Kingsmead, Knuzden, said: "The sentence is far too lenient and while it may deprive him of his job we have lost our son.

"It is a hollow victory, if it can even be deemed a victory. The worst thing is the time it has taken to get to this point and the suffering my wife, daughter and myself, have had to endure."

He renewed his call to Lancashire County Council to take urgent action to make the junction safer.

Mr Jamieson said: "I am going to start pursuing this with a new aggression. There was yet another accident there last week and something has to be done."

Page, 47, of Wickworth Street, Nelson, who was also ordered to pay £50 court costs, had pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention at an earlier hearing.

The court heard he had collected pupils from Rhyddings High School in his Accrington Transport bus and turned right at the junction in Haslingden Road into the path of Mr Jamieson's Peugeot 106.

Page pulled the second year architecture student from the car before it burst into flames. He was taken to Blackburn Royal Infirmary but later died.

Eddie Harrison, prosecuting, said: "Vehicles should not turn across the path of an oncoming vehicle, drivers should wait to see if it is safe but Mr Page didn't do that."

He said the decision to turn had resulted in the tragedy.

John Wilson, defending, told magistrates Page had not been reckless, but had made an "error of judgement".

He said: "The accident happened because Mr Page, having seen the on-coming car, judged he had time to cross that carriageway safely. He was wrong."

Mr Wilson told the court Mr Jamieson had been driving at 53mph in a 40mph zone and investigators had concluded that had he been doing 40mph, he may have been able to avoid the collision.

But he added: "Any error by another driver does not cancel out the error of judgement made by Mr Page. If he hadn't turned, no accident would have happened."

Magistrates heard Page tried to continue working as a bus driver but had given up in May and was now on incapacity benefit.

Mr Wilson said: "Both the stress of events and the realisation of what happened wore him down. He gave up work and he can't face driving."

Lancashire County Council is completing a feasibility study into the possibility of replacing the junction with a full-sized roundabout.