A private hire driver has told a jury that he never saw a pedestrian who died after suffering fatal injuries in an early hours collision with his vehicle.
Mohammed Imtiaz, who has worked as a cabbie for 15 years, said he thought someone throwing a stone or a brick had caused part of his windscreen to shatter and it was only when he got back to his Dewsbury home about 90 minutes later that he discovered the full extent of the damage to his Toyota Corolla.
Scholes woman Vicky Holland, 28, is said to have been using a pelican crossing on Whitehall Road, Wyke, when she was involved in a collision with Imtiaz’s car and suffered multiple injuries from which she later died.
Imtiaz, 45, of Healds Road, has denied a charge of causing her death by careless driving and yesterday he told a jury at Bradford Crown Court that if he had realised a pedestrian had been involved in the incident he would have stopped his car straight away and called the police for assistance.
Imtiaz, who was taking a woman passenger to Halifax at the the time of the collision in May last year, described how he was travelling at about 40mph on the A58 and the traffic lights were on green as he approached the junction with Westfield Lane.
“When I got closer to the lights something hit my car,” he told the jury via an Urdu interpreter.
“I heard a noise. I couldn’t see anything.”
He said the windscreen was smashed and his passenger suggested that something might have been thrown at the car.
Imtiaz said the passenger had not said anything about a pedestrian and when he slowed his car down after the lights he could not see anything when he checked in his driver’s wing mirror.
The cabbie took his passenger to Halifax where he picked up three men who were then driven back to Gomersal and Birstall.
During that return journey he came across the emergency services after they had closed off the A58.
Imtiaz turned his Toyota round and took an alternative and his barrister Michael Rawlinson asked the defendant what he thought had happened on the road.
“That road is very busy all the time and I thought some incident had happened and that was why it was closed,” said Imtiaz.
“Did it go through your mind that it could be connected to anything you’d done?” asked his barrister.
“No. Nothing like that came into my mind,” said Imtiaz.
After dropping off his passengers Imtiaz returned to his home at about 4am and discovered the extent of the damage to his Toyota.
Imtiaz went to Dewsbury police station soon after and he was arrested in connection with the fatal collision.
“Do you think you could have done anything differently to avoid the collision?” asked Mr Rawlinson.
“I didn’t see anything so how would I do anything about it,” said Imtiaz.
The jury has heard that there was no CCTV footage of the collision and no eye witnesses who saw Miss Holland as she tried to cross the road.
The trial continues.
