Motorist 'unable to recall fatal crash'

David Cox said he had no "accurate recollection" of the events when his car was in collision with a Yamaha motorcycle on the A458 Shrewsbury to Welshpool road in April last year.

At Shrewsbury Crown Court yesterday 49-year-old Cox said he did not remember having corrected his Vauxhall Astra when it first crossed on to the opposite carriageway.

Moments later the car had veered across to the right again and was in collision with a motorbike coming in the opposite direction.

During cross-examination prosecutor Mr Thomas Kenning suggested to Cox that he had started coughing 'quite some distance' from the scene of the crash.

In interviews Cox told police it had been for 'about a minute' after being given a sweet by his mother. He told the court he had been using a figure of speech.

Mr Kenning suggested Cox had chosen to try and keep steering the car and had lost control, failed to slow down, pull over to the left, or stop.

Cox said he could not remember and broke down in the witness box and was sobbing for several minutes.

He told the jury he was upset because of the loss of life and because he was unable to remember the detail of what had happened.

The court has heard that Kevin Byrne, 48, was the rider of the Yamaha motorcycle, and his wife Carol, 49, was the pillion passenger.

The couple, from Rhayader, Powys, died as they travelled towards Welshpool on their way home from a motorbike rally on April 21 last year.

The defendant's car had been travelling in the opposite direction when the collision occurred on a right hand bend at Rowton, near Halfway House.

Cox, from Atherstone in Warwickshire, denies two charges of causing death by careless driving.

The trial continues.