A VAN driver will be sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court next week after a motorist died in hospital from an infection linked to injuries suffered in a St Helens road crash.

News of the charge against Neil Lyon emerged as an inquest on Tuesday heard details of 63-year-old Trevor Foster’s death.

Mr Foster was driving his Ford Ka along the St Helens Linkway on the night of July 19 last year when it was struck at the rear by a Ford van, driven by Lyon.

Mr Foster, a coach driver from Lydford Gardens, Bolton, was taken by ambulance to hospital where he was diagnosed with fractures to his skull and injuries to his ribs, sternum and spleen, coroner’s officer Kevin Farrell told a hearing at St Helens Town Hall.

He was initially treated at the trauma centre at Aintree Hospital before being transferred on July 24 to Walton Neurological Centre.

He had undergone surgery and his care was going well until July 28 when his condition deteriorated because of an infection to the central nervous system.

A post mortem concluded he died on July 31 as a result of an infection that had developed following a traffic accident.

The inquest heard Lyon, aged 38, of Central Drive, Haydock was subsequently questioned by police and, after being charged, pleaded guilty to causing death by driving without due care and attention.

He will be sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court on April 16.

Coroner Christopher Sumner suspended the delivery of his verdict until after the sentencing.