HUNDREDS of mourners filled a North-East cemetery to pay their final respects to a soldier killed in a tragic accident.

Sergeant Andrew Jowers, better known by his Army nickname of Jiggy, was one of two victims of a road accident in Arizona, US, two weeks ago.

Yesterday, the popular soldier was given full military honours, with officers forming a corridor of arms for the funeral cortege.

A lone piper played as family, colleagues and friends gathered for the burial service in Acklam Cemetery, on the day he had been due to fly home.

The 36-year-old father-of-three, from Ormesby, Middlesbrough, had been due to be reunited with his wife, CarolAnn, and their sons Ross, ten, Connor, eight, and Josh, five, for Christmas.

Mrs Jowers, from Hemlington, Middlesbrough, said thecouple had spent much of their married life in Germany.

She said her husband joined up in 1986 and served in Bosnia, Poland, Cyprus and Northern Ireland. He had done two tours in Iraq, and was directing ground attack aircraft with the RAF and the US Marine Corps in the US.

Sgt Jowers has a brother, Lee, 31, who was a soldier in the Green Howards for 11 years, and a sister, Kelly, 29.

His mother, Maureen, 54, from Ormesby, said: "He has served all over the world and you have to expect something could happen, but we did not expect it to be like this - not when he was in Arizona, just on a training exercise."

Sgt Jowers was a passenger in a pick-up truck hit by a lorry towing a trailer on December 5. The pick-up's driver, Johnathan Train, 26, also died.

The truck driver, Ruben Gallardo-Aguilera, 39, of Mexicali, has been charged with man-slaughter and gross negligence. He is also charged with commercial log book violations for the hours that he had driven.