Briton killed in Belgian road crash

ONE British workman died and three others were injured when a van carrying them to a job in Germany was cut in two on a Belgian motorway yesterday.

John Clarke, 61, from Worksop, Nottinghamshire, was one of nine men travelling in a Ford Transit which was stationary on the hard shoulder of the Brussels-Liege motorway at Lincent, when it was hit by a French lorry.

Police said the lorry driver, who suffered minor injuries in the crash, had fallen asleep at the wheel. The Britons in the van, five of them from one family, were members of a team of steel-fitting specialists driving to start work on a Frankfurt building site.

Mr Clarke, who was in one of the rear seats, died instantly. Steven Ridley, 48, and Kevan Ridley, 61, both from Worksop, and Kenneth Stephenson, 42, from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, were recovering in hospital in Waremme.

The van driver, Thomas Ridley, 30, Thomas George Ridley, 50, Keven Ridley, 27, all from Worksop, Mark Cubbitt, 31, from Rotherham and 31-year-old Richard Holmes from Sheffield, were all treated for shock.