Coach crash driver fined

A French court yesterday sentenced British coach driver Jim Shaw to pay a fine of 12,000 francs (pounds 1,230) over a crash last July in which three British schoolchildren died. Shaw, 43, appeared before a court in Albertville, eastern France, last month following the accident in which his coach drove into a ravine.

Three schoolchildren, 16-year-old Nicola Moore, and 14-year-olds Robert Boardman and Keith Riddings, from the Saint James High School in Bolton, Greater Manchester, died in the crash in the Alps near Moutiers. Nineteen other youngsters were injured, six of them seriously. The court, delivering its sentence, found Shaw guilty of manslaughter and failing to control his vehicle. The prosecutor had called for a fine and a two-month suspended jail term.