A driver who crashed into an oncoming car and killed his passenger has told a court he can remember nothing about the crash nor the day itself.

Jago Clarke lost control of this car while driving as part of a convoy of vehicles between Broad Haven beach and Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire and crashed into an oncoming car, a smash that claimed the life of his passenger, 21-year-old Ella Smith, and caused the passenger in the other car serious injury. It is the prosecution case that Clarke in a white Ford Ka and another driver in the three-vehicle convoy, Emma Price in her blue Citroen C1, were driving "competitively" at the time of the smash.

Clarke accepts causing the death of his friend Miss Smith by careless driving but denies the more serious charge of causing her death by dangerous driving. Price also denies causing death by dangerous driving. Both defendants are on trial at Swansea Crown Court.

Giving evidence from the witness box, 21-year-old Clarke told the jury that he suffered a bleed on the brain and two collapsed lungs in the crash, was in a coma for two days, and spent around three weeks in hospital. In response to questions from his advocate Jon Tarrant, the defendant told the court he could remember nothing about the day in question, Sunday June 13, 2021 - he said the last thing he could remember was being at a friend's house the night before the incident, and then the next thing he could recall was waking up in hospital feeling "scared and not knowing what was going on". In response to a question from Mr Tarrant about whether any memories of the incident had returned to him in the years since the crash and whether he recalled anything of what had happened, the defendant replied: "No. I wish I did so I could help."

The court has previously heard evidence from Price in which she denied "racing" with Clarke on the day in question, and denied playing any part in the death of Miss Smith. Price told the court the B4341 was a road she knew well as her grandfather lived nearby, and she said she was driving within the speed limit as part of the convoy. The 21-year-old denied at any time positioning her Citroen in the road to try to stop Clarke in the Ka from overtaking her, and told the court that as she rounded a bend she saw in her mirrors the Ka behind her was "in the middle of the road". She said she then heard a "massive bang" as the Ka hit an oncoming Seat car. Price said she performed an emergency stop, sounded the horn to alert the people in the first car of the convoy, and then reversed back to the crash before calling 999. When asked directly by her barrister Dyfed Thomas where she had been racing that day, she replied: "No".

The trial has heard that on the evening in question a group of friends including Clarke and Price met at Broad Haven beach to "chill". Miss Smith later joined them to collect Clarke in her Ka. The group then set off towards Haverfordwest in a convoy of three vehicles with a Fiat Punto leaving the beach car park first followed by Price in her blue Citroen and then Clarke driving Miss Smith's white Ford. Both Price and Clarke were learner drivers.

As the convoy approached the village of Portfield Gate on the B4341 Clarke lost control on a bend and clipped the nearside verge before careering across the road and into the path of an oncoming Seat car causing a high impact collision. Miss Smith, from Camrose in Pembrokeshire, suffered catastrophic injuries in the crash and died at the scene. The passenger in the Seat, Daisy Buck, was badly injured in the smash and had to undergo surgery.

The trial has heard evidence from a passenger in the first vehicle in the three-vehicle convoy, Luis Heathfield, who said he saw in the mirrors of the car that the C1 and the Ka were "swerving" from side to side, and he said he thought Price was trying to stop Clarke from passing her. He said he then saw Clarke's car pull in to the left and clip the kerb before it crossed into the opposite carriageway and into the path of the oncoming Seat. Mr Heathfield said there was a "loud bang" and the Ford ended up in the hedge on the wrong side of the road.

The trial has also from the driver of the oncoming Seat, Rowan Fair, who told the jury that at a bend in the road just outside Portfield Gate he saw two cars - one blue, one white - "side by side" heading in his direction and travelling "very fast". The witness said he saw the blue car completing an overtaking manoeuvre of the white car and returning to the correct lane, and saw the white car "pull to the left" as though it was letting the blue car pull in front of it. Mr Fair said he then saw the white car hit the hedge on the nearside and "fly back out" across the road into his path. The witness said he had no time to react or avoid the collision.

It is the prosecution case that Clarke and Price were driving "competitively" and dangerously at the time of the crash and are equally culpable for the death of Miss Smith. It is Clarke's case that his driving was careless rather dangerous, while it is Price's case that she played "no part whatsoever" in the death of Miss Smith nor in the serious injury suffered by Miss Buck.

Jago Clarke, of Sunningdale Drive, Hubberston, Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, denies causing death by dangerous driving, and causing serious injury by dangerous driving. He has admitted a lesser alternative of causing death by careless driving, and has admitted causing death by driving while unlicensed and uninsured. Emma Price, of Holloway, Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, denies causing death by dangerous driving, causing death by driving while unlicensed and uninsured, and causing serious injury by dangerous driving. The trial continues.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/death-crash-driver-cannot-remember-28311671