Alex Butwell tragedy: BMW driver cleared over motorway death

Meanwhile, the driver of the HGV that triggered the tragic accident has had the charge he faces reduced.

Lorry driver George Carr had denied causing Alex Butwell's death on the M40 in Warwickshire in March last year by dangerous driving.

Donald Corrigan, who was driving the BMW which hit Mr Butwell's car, pleaded not guilty to causing the 25-year-old's death by driving without due care and attention.

Following lengthy legal submissions at the end of the prosecution case at Warwick Crown Court, Judge Sylvia de Bertodano ruled that Corrigan, aged 67, had no case to answer and entered a not guilty verdict on him.

She also ruled that Carr had no case to answer on the charge of causing Mr Butwell's death by dangerous driving – but that the trial against him should continue on a less serious charge of causing death by careless driving.

The jury had heard that Mr Butwell, from Tividale, with his girlfriend and a friend in his Volkswagen Polo, was at the head of a convoy of 11 car enthusiasts on their way to a show at Santa Pod Raceway on an unlit section of the M40 at around 5am.

Carr, aged 64, of The Hurn, Digby, Lincolnshire, who was also heading south, pulled out to overtake the convoy and as he began to pull back into the inside lane the lorry's cab struck the Polo, sending it spinning in front of the lorry which then shunted it along before it was thrown into the central barrier.

After he and his two passengers got out of the car, which had come to rest sticking out into the fast lane, Mr Butwell was struck and killed by Corrigan's BMW.

But giving evidence, accident investigator Pc Colin Humphreys said he and defence expert Peter Jennings agreed that Mr Butwell had speeded up as he was being overtaken.

The accident reconstruction experts agreed that Carr's lorry 'was travelling at a constant speed of 56mph in the seconds before colliding with Mr Butwell's car.'

And if Mr Butwell had not accelerated, it was calculated that the rear of the artic would have been a safe 37 metres in front of the Polo when Carr began to pull back in.

As it was, the Polo's acceleration meant it may well have remained in the lorry driver's blind spot, Pc Humphreys accepted.

Explaining her rulings, which had been made in their absence, Judge de Bertodano told the jury that in the light of that evidence, there was 'no way' they could be asked to find Mr Corrigan, of Butt Lane, Allesley, Coventry, guilty or that Carr had been driving dangerously.