A NEW driver who killed a father of four after smashing into him as he tried to overtake on a notorious country road has been jailed.

Aidan Nightingale, 23, at the wheel of his Renault Clio, hit Jonathan Salter's Land Rover, which was pulling a trailer, as he tried to pass the victim and another vehicle in Keighley Road, Laneshawbridge, last November.

He pulled out on a straight piece of road, but was not going fast enough for the manoeuvre and cut in, striking the Land Rover, as another car came towards him around a blind bend ahead, Burnley Crown Court heard.

Nightingale, who had started to overtake against solid double white lines, pushed Mr Slater’s vehicle off the road and into a stone wall. The victim, said not to be wearing a seat belt, was thrown from the Land Rover as it flipped over and he died hours later in Airedale Hospital.

The defendant, of Church Street, Hapton, had admitted causing death by dangerous driving and was jailed for two years four months and banned for five years. He had no previous convictions.

Sentencing, Judge Philip Butler said the case was tragic and both the victim and the defendant were ‘decent all-round men’.

He told Nightingale: “It was an accident. You didn’t intend to hurt anybody.”

The judge told the court the collision was not a momentary lapse as the defendant, who regularly used the road knew, or should have known, there were areas where it would be ‘gravely dangerous’ to try and overtake.

Judge Butler said the manoeuvre had been very bad and risky and told Nightingale: “You will carry the memory of this accident and its aftermath with you for the rest of your life.”

Ian Metcalfe, prosecuting, said Mr Salter, 46, of Bingley, left a partner Sally Padgett and children Charl-otte, Christopher and Emily, who were in their 20s or late teens.

He had a son, Joe, aged two and a half, with Miss Padgett.

Peter Turner, for Night-ingale, who helped saved someone from drow-ning in 2000, said he expressed his regret and sympathy to the victim's family and was very dis-tressed.

The solicitor added: “He accepts he was in the wrong gear. It was a huge mistake.”