Death crash surgeon denies being asleep at wheel

A ROYAL NAVY surgeon from Plymouth has told a jury he was not asleep at the wheel when he was involved in a motorway collision that led to a motorcyclist's death.

Richard Hughes, 29, pictured far right, was travelling on the M3 in Hampshire when he collided with the back of an articulated lorry close to junction five, near Fleet.

The Lieutenant Surgeon, then of Plymbridge Lane, Derriford, was on his way to Heathrow to catch a flight to Spain to see his girlfriend when the accident occurred at about 5.30am on January 4 last year.

After the collision, his Citroen was partly left in the middle lane of the motorway and biker Martin Hopper, 40, collided with it. Mr Hopper, from Basingstoke, died at the scene.

Giving evidence in the witness box at Winchester Crown Court, Canadian-born Hughes said: "At no time in the journey was I tired. I did not fall asleep.

"I was not in a rush. I had left enough time. I was not feeling tired, certainly not too tired to drive. I was feeling excited because I had a few extra days' holiday."

Hughes said he had seen the lorry and was catching it up, so he decided to overtake. He moved out and looked over his shoulder but told the court he now thought that the lorry had moved into the middle lane at the same time.

"I remember turning around. The truck, which I planned to overtake, was right in front of me. The truck's brake lights were on.

"We seemed to be closing quicker than we had before. I hit the brakes pretty hard as an emergency stop. The front of the car collided with the back of the truck and the airbags deployed and there was smoke."

Hughes, who is now based at the Institute of Naval Medicine in Gosport, Hampshire, denies causing death by dangerous driving. The trial continues.