Driver of lorry held over crash that killed cadets

The Spanish driver of a lorry involved in the coach crash on the A1 which killed three young air cadets on Monday has been arrested on suspicion of careless driving.

The Spanish driver of a lorry involved in the coach crash on the A1 which killed three young air cadets on Monday has been arrested on suspicion of careless driving.

Seven other cadets were injured in the crash near Thornhaugh in Cambridgeshire, which involved the coach and two lorries. A 15-year-old cadet, James Topping, from Barnet, remained in a critical condition at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, last night.

The party of 36 air cadets and four adults from the Middlesex Air Training Corps was returning from an orienteering exercise in Wakerley Woods, near Corby, to their summer camp at RAF Wittering, when the crash happened at 9.30pm.

According to witnesses, the Spanish articulated lorry struck the back of the coach, which was fitted with seatbelts and driven by a Royal Air Force driver. As the cadets were disembarking and treating the injured, the coach was struck by a second lorry.

Those who died were sitting at the back, police said.

They were named as Wayne Maynard, 18, from Barnet, north London; Christopher Colmer, 15, from Pinner, north-west London; and Jason Adnitt, 15, from Edmonton, north London. Police said two were certified dead at the scene while the third died later in hospital.

A Cambridgeshire police spokesman said the Spanish driver, 32, had been detained. "The driver was arrested at the scene on suspicion of driving without due care and attention."