Home Page Haverhill News

An aircraft mechanic involved in a fatal road crash has admitted to a jury that he was driving too fast, but denied he was racing friends in another car to see who could get to the pub first.

Paul Ager lost control of a Vauxhall Nova on a bend on the A1307 at Horseheath on a wet July 18th last year and smashed into an oncoming Rover, killing its driver instantly.

The 21 year old, who works at Duxford's Imperial War Museum, is on trial at Cambridge Crown Court accused of causing the death of 28 year old Christopher Osborne, of Old Rope Walk, Haverhill, by dangerous driving. He denies the charge.

Ager was at the wheel of friend Barry vincent's newly acquired car - fitted with a 2.0 litre engine and with a slow puncture in one tyre and the minimum legal tread on another - on the rainy night, when he and two other friends decided to go from Abington to the De Monfort Arms pub in Horseheath to play pool, the court was told.

Ager, with Mr Vincent in the passenger seat, overtook friends Andy Banks and Matthew Norman in their Peugeot on the dual carriageway stretch of the A1307 then, instead of bypassing Linton, did a detour through the village.

In the witness box, Ager, under cross examination, denied he had driven through the village to show off or that there had been "an element of racing going on."

But pressed on whether he had been driving too fast that night in "atrocious" conditions, he agreed.

The court heard that Ager, of Horseheath, took the uphill bend on which the tragedy occurred at 60 mph. Mr Osborne was declared dead at the scene.

The Vauxhall Nova that Ager was driving was split in two by the impact of the crash.

The case continues.