TRAGEDY struck when devoted son Ian Stephenson took his mother for a Sunday drive to one of her favourite places.

They headed for a North Yorkshire beauty spot where his father's ashes were scattered nine years before.

But on the journey along a twisting road he crashed while overtaking a lorry and his mother Freda, 84, was fatally injured.

His Rover car collided head-on with a Renault Laguna and she died that night from internal bleeding.

Police arrested electronics engineer Stephenson, 43, and charged him with dangerous driving on the B1363 between Sutton on Forest and Stillington, near Easingwold, North Yorkshire.

Philip Williams, defending, told a court: "This was a road that he knew well, not far from the location where his father's ashes were scattered, and he would take his mother there often. Which adds to the tragedy.

"On any view it is a very sad case indeed. He was in a blind spot and he had not seen the car coming, with some tragic results for him and his family."

Judge Michael Taylor told Stephenson, whose wife was in court: "Whatever I do you are going to be punished for the rest of your life bearing responsibility for her death."

Stephenson, of Constantine Avenue, Tang Hall, York, was given five penalty points with a fine of £500 after he pleaded guilty at Teesside Crown Court to driving with undue care on April 19 last year.

The prosecution accepted his not guilty plea to dangerous driving.