A TEENAGE driver who knocked over and killed a young girl while speeding escaped with a fine of £500 last week.

Christopher Mitchell, 19, who pleaded guilty to careless driving, was also disqualified from driving for two years and ordered to pay £200 costs after magistrates said it had been a 'momentary lapse.'

A court was told Mitchell had been travelling at least 15mph over the speed limit just before he collided with Laura Burrows-Schofield, who was crossing the street on her bike at a traffic refuge south of the Neville's Cross junction on the A167, in Durham, last year.

According to experts, had he been within the 40mph speed limit he would have been able to stop without hitting her - and even if he had collided with her it would have been a 'very minor' accident.

Laura's parents Stephen and Jackie, of Darlington Road, Neville's Cross, said they felt let down by the justice system. They joined calls for a new charge of causing death by careless driving.

Speaking after the hearing before Consett magistrates, Mr Schofield said: "No sentence will ever bring Laura back.

"This sentence was heavier than normally passed down in a magistrates' court, but we have always believed as a family that this was death by dangerous driving. The charge of driving without due care and attention does not identify the death and to lose one's daughter and not have her death recognised is very painful."

The family was backed by road safety group Brake, which has been campaigning for ten years for tougher sentences.

A Brake spokesman said: "We want to see the complete scrapping of the charge of careless driving if there has been a death or injury.

"The charge should be dangerous driving and the case should go to the crown court."

Lesley Kirkup, prosecuting, told the court the crash happened as Laura crossed the A167, on May 19 last year.

Pedestrian John Thompson said that shortly before the accident, Laura had cycled past him on the pavement.

He heard screeching and saw smoke coming from Mitchell's turbo diesel VW Golf's tyres as it collided with her. Mitchell was heard repeating: "I just didn't see her."

Ms Kirkup said, based on skidmarks and other physical evidence, accident investigator Graham Greatrix calculated Mitchell was travelling at at least 55mph when he braked and 48mph at time of impact.

Interviewed by police, Mitchell of Blaidwood Drive, Durham, said: "I was going down the road and saw a little girl on a bike and the next thing I knew the windscreen was out and I stopped as quickly as I could."

A theatre nurse at the University Hospital of North Durham, Mr Schofield said he worked with Christopher Mitchell's father Rob, who is a consultant anaesthetist.

He said: "It is hard because we were friends and we will have to work through this from a work point of view and try to resolve the situation."