Fatal crash Pc 'drove at 104mph'

Both officers deny the charge

A police officer killed a motorist when he lost control of his car on the bend of a country road after hitting speeds of 104mph (167km/h), a court heard.

Pc Sean Schofield was driving a marked Volvo on an exercise when he hit the oncoming VW Touran driven by Peter Williams, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

Mr Williams, 67, of Bolton-le-Sands, Lancashire, died the next day.

Pc Schofield, 38, and his instructor Pc Andrew Massingham, 41, deny causing death by dangerous driving.

Mr Williams, a retired academic, and his wife Jean, 65, were on their way to the Yorkshire Dales for a weekend break when the crash happened on the B6254 near Over Kellett in north Lancashire on 2 November 2006.

The jury heard that a black box in his car showed Pc Schofield, an advanced police driver, had reached 104mph (167km/h) seconds before the crash on the narrow winding country lane.

'Nowhere to go'

Pc Massingham, also an advanced police driver, was the instructor for the training exercise and was in a police Volvo T5 ahead of Pc Schofield's car.

Prosecutors claim he was dictating the speed his trainee was driving and therefore equally responsible for the crash.

Nick Johnson QC, prosecuting, told the jury both cars were being driven at excessively high speeds which were "obviously unsuitable and dangerous" for the type of road.

Mrs Williams spotted the two police cars coming towards them at high speed and saw the second car - Pc Schofield's - "wobble" and cross on to the wrong side of the road.

Mr Johnson told the court Mr Williams could not swerve to avoid Pc Schofield as he may have hit the lead car driven by Pc Massingham.

The court heard allegations that the officers ignored hazard signs

"Mr Williams literally had nowhere to go," he told the jury.

"The inevitable followed - a high speed, high impact head-on collision. You may think it remarkable anybody survived frankly."

A black box device fitted to police cars showed that Pc Schofield hit speeds of between 65 (104km/h) and 104mph (167km/h) and Pc Massingham between 86 (138km/h) and 95mph (153km/h) in the 30 seconds before impact.

Pc Schofield, a traffic officer for five months before the crash, told investigators he had not seen hazard signs on the road.

He also said he did not believe his speed had been unsafe because it was dictated by Pc Massingham, the court heard.

Pc Massingham told investigators he was "staggered" by this suggestion and denied driving recklessly.

"This was a road peppered with hidden hazards - blind spots, entrances to properties, junctions, bends, dips and a hidden hump in the road," Mr Johnson added.

"It was the combination of the bend, the hump and the grossly excessive speed that undid Pc Schofield, causing him to lose control and cross on to the wrong side of the road."

The trial is expected to last two weeks.