The trial of a lorry driver involved in a horrific crash which saw three people killed including Suffolk schoolboy Stuart Dines, is due to start this morning.

The trial of a lorry driver involved in a horrific crash which saw three people killed including Suffolk schoolboy Stuart Dines, is due to start this morning.

And it is likely the 32-year-old German man will know his fate today as a judgement is due to be made at the end of the day.

The unnamed driver is charged with involuntary manslaughter. He is due to attend the local court of Kerpen, near Cologne, for trial.

The driver faces the charge after a horrific motorway crash, near Cologne, in the early hours of February 11 this year.

The accident happened when a double-decker coach, carrying pupils and staff from Thomas Mills High School in Framlingham, near Woodbridge, suffered a puncture and had to pull over on to the hard shoulder.

The stationary coach, which was on its way to a half-term ski break in the Austrian resort of Fugen, was then struck from behind by a lorry carrying sheet metal.

Stuart Dines, 14, was killed when a piece of metal from the lorry smashed through one of the coach windows.

The lorry was then involved in a second collision with another British coach carrying 36 pupils, plus staff, from the private Norwich School, which was also heading to a half-term skiing trip in the Alps.

Jane Irving, 53, a school secretary, and off-duty coach driver Ron Lees, 69, who were both travelling on the Norfolk coach, were also killed in the accident.

Today's court hearing follows an ongoing investigation by German authorities into the crash.

No other details about the case have been revealed at this stage but a judgement in the German lorry driver's trial is expected to be given today.

Brian Marjoram, a coach driver with Great Yarmouth-based Ambassador Travel, who was driving the Norfolk coach at the time of the crash, is still waiting to hear whether he will face any action.

A spokesman from Ambassador Travel said the company was still in the dark at the moment.

“We are in regular contact with the police liaison officer and I understand he is going to Germany and is hoping to give us more information when he comes back,” he added.

A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office confirmed today had been set for the trial of the German lorry driver but said no new information was available regarding Mr Marjoram.