A JURY has heard eye-witness accounts of the aftermath of a “high speed” car crash on Wigton bypass which claimed the life of a young driver.

Witness Andrew Johnson was driving past the scene of the fatal accident on the A596 shortly after Steven Parker’s white BMW left the road and crashed into a line of trees.

Liam Dixon, 27, denies causing his death by dangerous driving.

The prosecution alleges the tragedy was the result of the two men - Dixon and Mr Parker - engaging in a “high-speed” car chase, reaching speeds of more than 100mph.

Prosecutor Stuart Neal has told the jury that the two men drove at “ludicrously high” speeds on the day of the tragedy.

Mr Parker’s BMW span out of control in front of Liam Dixon’s Vauxhall Corsa before leaving the road.

Mr Parker, 23, died while one of his two passengers, a man called Lee Jefferson, sustained a brain injury and fractures to his jaw and eye socket.

The other person in the car was Mr Parker’s young brother, the court heard.

In his statement, Mr Johnson described seeing a young smash his way out of the crashed BMW through the back window as smoke or steam rose from its bonnet.

The man was clearly agitated and panicked, said Mr Johnson.

The man then tried to get into the crashed car through the doors, but they would not open.

“There were two young men trapped inside the car,” continued Mr Johnston. One appeared to be dead, while the other was desperately trying to get out of the car.

The witness then saw a white SUV vehicle pull up nearby. It was the parents of man who had died, he said, the mother clearly very distressed.

The court also heard the statement of Mr Parker’s girlfriend, nurse Rachel Benn.

She recalled working a 12-hour shift at Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary on February 3, the day of the accident.

When at 2.50pm she checked her social media pages, she noticed a video on Mr Parker’s snapchat account, showing the steering wheel and speedometer of his BMW car.

“I could not see the numbers but I could see that the number was towards the top end of the speedo, indicating he was going fast," she said.

She described Mr Parker’s driving in the video as “clearly stupid.”

The court also heard from Cumbria Police crash investigator Steven Wakefield, who examined the crash scene and the cars involved.

The jury was shown pictures of the wrecked BMW, and the trees it had crashed into.

Two had been completely snapped, leaving stumps.

“Trees rarely sustain damage in collisions," said PC Wakefield.

"To destroy a tree needs high kinetic energy; in other words, you need a high speed to do that.”

The officer was asked about the average speed on the two cars involved, based on dashcam footage of the accident.

He said: "I can say without fear of contradiction that it was at least 100mph; and it was most likely 118mph."

He added that 118mph is almost certainly a "vast underestimate."

During his opening of the case, prosecutor Stuart Neale quoted from Liam Dixon’s police interview after the crash.

The defendant, of Throstle Avenue, Greenacres, Wigton, described what happened as a blur, telling police: “I had seen Steven driving his BMW towards me.

“He must have turned around as he was following me as I approached the bypass.

“He had been following me in the short time prior driving around Wigton. I drove west towards Aspatria.

"Being honest, I drove quite quickly down the bypass.

“I would be doing quite a bit more than the speed limit, I would guess, but I never looked at the speedo.

“I honestly don’t know what happened as it was a blur.”

The trial continues.