THE 20-YEAR-OLD van driver who mounted a kerb killing a three-year-old toddler today apologised saying "I'm so sorry" to her heartbroken family.

Ryan Frayne, of East Street, Feniscowles, spoke after being found guilty of driving without due care and attention at Blackburn magistrates court.

He said: "I don't know if I could have broke to bring the vehicle to a stop instead of swerving. I probably never will.

"I'm sorry for what has happened and the effects it has caused.

"I'm just glad the trial is now all over with."

Frayne, a maintenance engineer for Nationwide Access, where he services and repairs plant-hire equipment, was driving a company vehicle.

The former Queen Elizabeth Grammar School pupil has worked for the firm from being an apprentice but could now lose his full-time job.

Defending at the day-long trial at Blackburn magistrates court yesterday, Andrew Church-Taylor said: "Nobody here is going to be satisfied with the outcome.

"But if you seek to disqualify my client he will not be able to continue in his job without a driving licence.

"He is a good employee and won apprentice of the year in his second year of training."

Frayne told the court he had been swerving to avoid a bike when he had lost control of the vehicle and it had mounted the kerb hitting Demi-Leigh Hitchen and flattening a barrier.

But prosecuting, Eddie Harrison said: "I put it to you that you were not concentrating and, if you had been, you would have seen the possible hazard of the bike earlier and been able to negotiate it better."

One witness, Anthony McCullion, of Heys Court, Blackburn, said he was driving home from work when he saw the van coming down Livesey Branch Road towards him.

"The van was swerving from left to right. It was drifting as if the driver was drunk. The van was all over the road." he said.

Frayne provided a negative alcohol breath test and was not found to be speeding after the accident on July 18 last year in Livesey Branch Road.