A 76-YEAR-old D-Day veteran who killed a pedestrian in the New Forest when his lorry jack-knifed because he forgot to attach air brakes to its trailer was yesterday ordered to do 240 hours of community service work and banned from driving for four years.

Judge David MacLaren Webster QC told Walter Duell, of Hardwicke, Gloucestershire, the sentence would never assuage his guilt and responsibility for the death of 41-year-old Derek Ross. The judge said: "The burden of the knowledge that you will continue to bear in the twilight of your life is that you caused the death of a man who was then in the daylight of his."

At a previous hearing in Winchester Crown Court, Duell had pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving.

The war veteran, a fairground showman, was transporting games machines in his 15-tonne lorry, when it jack-knifed and hit Mr Ross, killing him instantly.

The court was told Duell had to brake sharply when a car in front of him stopped to turn right on the A337 at Brockenhurst, Hampshire, on June 4 last year.

The 17-tonne trailer, belonging to Cole's Fairgrounds, swung across the road and hit Mr Ross, of Slough, Berkshire, who was on holiday in the New Forest with friends.

The judge also ordered Duell to retake his driving test at the end of his disqualification period, and to pay £1,192 in costs.