A DRIVER involved in a crash which killed a Swindon teenager has denied causing death by dangerous driving.

Amal Patel was 19 when he died in the accident on the notorious A345 between Swindon and Marlborough last year.

He was a passenger in a silver BMW being driven by his friend Geoffrey Fairburn who is now standing trial at Swindon Crown Court. The car collided with another vehicle and Amal, who was the only child of Jackie Patel, took the brunt of the impact.

Shortly after the accident his mother, of Cheney Manor Road, paid tribute to her son in the Evening Advertiser. She said he was a motorsports fanatic and had always told her he would die on the racing circuit and not on the road.

Nick O'Brien, prosecuting, said Fairburn, 29, of Gooch Street, Swindon, lost control of the car on a right hand bend when he was driving towards Marlbor-ough in August last year.

He added that a Volkswagen Polo travelling in the opposite direction couldn't avoid the powerful car as it came sideways towards it on the wrong side of the road.

Witness Sarah Blay, who was driving the car behind the Polo, told the court how she saw the BMW come around the corner before it crashed and ended up in a ditch. Mrs Blay, of Marlborough, said: "I suddenly saw this BMW come round the bend on both sides of the road with the side facing us, and I can remember shouting 'Oh my God'.

"I then checked in my rear view mirror to make sure there wasn't anyone behind me and stopped my car as quickly as possible.

"The Volkswagen had hit the BMW as far as I can remember on the passenger door"

The court heard that Fairburn suffered serious head injuries and could remember nothing about the day of the accident. Amal, a software salesman, was his front seat passenger and certified dead at the scene.

A former pupil of Wroughton Infant and Junior and Common-weal schools, he was on his way to a day's karting practice when he was killed. A second passenger in the BMW received minor injuries, and the driver of the Polo, Carrie-Anne Baker, 29, of Marlborough, suffered a broken collar bone.

The court also heard from motorist Christopher Garman, of East Grafton, who was travelling in the same direction as Fairburn. He said a silver BMW had overtaken him at speed before reaching Ogbourne St George. He had seen the vehicle crossing double white lines in the middle of the road and not indicating as it overtook other vehicles.

The case continues.