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A MAN was seriously hurt after a 60 mile per hour car race went awry in a busy residential street in broad daylight, a court heard yesterday.
Ioan Scarlat, 25, was allegedly behind the wheel of a Citroen Saxo when the car left the road and ploughed into a tree in West Way, near Castlepoint, just after 10am on May 15 last year.
Prosecutors claim Scarlat, then an aspiring MMA fighter, had been driving at speed in the seconds before the crash. It is alleged he was being “tailgated” by a Vauxhall Astra driven by David Lee.
The men, who had never met, are both on trial at Bournemouth Crown Court.
Jurors heard claims that Lee, 42, left the scene immediately after the serious collision and was arrested at an address in Charminster several hours later.
Rebecca Fairbairn, prosecuting, said two postal workers for the Royal Mail witnessed the speed of the cars. One said the Astra was so close to the Saxo that it appeared as if it was being ‘towed’ by a “short rope”.
They estimated the speed of the two cars as being between 50 and 60mph and believed the vehicles were “racing”, it was heard. West Way is subject to a 30mph limit.
“[The witnesses] saw the cars approach a sharp bend at the junction with Haverstock Road,” Ms Fairbairn said.
“They were still travelling at speed and the Astra was still very close. The brake lights of both cars illuminated, but not until they got very close to the bend. Then they saw a cloud of black smoke from the Saxo.”
Scarlat was able to get out of the car. However, he had suffered a fractured neck. He was flown to hospital, where he remained for some time. He has also had seizures. in the months after the collision.
The Astra was nowhere to be seen by the time witnesses pulled up at the scene of the crash, it was alleged.
Scarlat, of Richmond Park Road in Bournemouth, has denied dangerous driving. The court heard he accepts speeding, although not as quickly as alleged, and says he did so only because of Lee’s driving behind him. He thought the Astra may have clipped his Saxo in the seconds before the collision, it was heard.
Lee, of Hawkwood Road, Bournemouth, denies causing serious injury by dangerous driving and an alternative count of dangerous driving. He allegedly said Scarlat’s driving was “erratic” and although he witnessed the crash, he didn’t think it was “necessary for him to stop”, Ms Fairbairn said.
The trial continues.
