US officer on trial over Harrogate crash which injured two boys

Benjamin Oakes denies two counts of causing injury by careless driving

A United States military officer was responsible for a collision in North Yorkshire in which two teenagers were seriously hurt, prosecutors have said.

Col Benjamin Oakes, 46, has denied two counts of causing injury by careless driving in Harrogate on 2 February.

Prosecutors at York Magistrates' Court said he was edging out of a junction when his car clipped a truck.

It swerved, spun and hit a wall outside Ashville College, leaving the teenagers buried under debris, the court heard.

Giving evidence, one of the boys said: "We got hit through the wall. I think I got knocked out for a bit. We were in the bushes."

He said the truck hit him and he went onto its bonnet before hitting the wall.

He heard his friend scream, he added.

The teenager told the court how he found himself with a large piece of the wall on his left leg.

He said he looked over to his friend who saw his own badly injured leg and started screaming and saying he was going to die.

The witness, who was 15 at the time and is now 16, said he saw the Astra edging out the junction and clip the back end of the truck, which had been coming up the road "pretty quickly".

The collision took place in Harrogate on 2 February

The driver of the Ford Ranger truck Samuel Goodall said he assumed the Astra driver had seen him as the car rolled back slightly as he approached the junction.

He said instead the Astra pulled out in front of him and he had swerved "violently to the right".

Mr Goodall said this was an "evasive manoeuvre" and denied that emergency braking was an option.

In evidence, he said he then hit another car and "the next thing I knew, I was heading towards a wall and two boys that were walking in front of me.

"I hit the boys and went through the wall and the car came to a stop."

He said he got out of his car and helped the teenagers and then asked whose the white car was and "how the hell did he not see me?".

The witness said another man said: "It was mine. I didn't see you."

'Aggressive driver'

Mr Goodall said he was travelling within the 30mph speed limit between 20mph and 30mph

Peter Minnikin, defending Col Oakes, asked if he could have been nearer 40mph.

He admitted he did not know his speed but said: "It's a built-up area with lots of children around. I wasn't in a rush."

The driver of a third car, which was hit by the truck before it collided with the teenagers, described how she had flashed the Astra to let him pull out.

The woman said in a statement read to the court that she thought the person in the Astra was a "really aggressive driver".

She said he was "nudging forward" at the junction which she said was "blind" and said: "I really don't know why he went when he did."

The witness said she thought the truck was going "really quick" as it hit her with "some force".

The woman agreed with Mr Minnikin that the junction was "difficult to negotiate" and drivers needed a "creep-and-peep" technique to exit.

The Guardian has previously reported that Col Oakes had worked in a range of high-level roles for the Pentagon and was head of space policy for the US joint chiefs of staff.

District Judge Adrian Lower adjourned the trial until Tuesday when it is expected to conclude.