Welsh mother-to-be who lost baby in crash is now on trial

Welsh mother-to-be who lost baby in crash is now on trial

Laura Matthews-James is accused of causing death by driving without due care after a crash which killed her unborn son

A mother-to-be accused of causing the death of another motorist in a crash which also killed her unborn son told a doctor she 'would happily' swap places with the dead man, a court has heard.

Laura Matthews-James, 35, lost control of her Fiat 500 after overtaking two cars and collided with another vehicle on the B4300 near Carmarthen, South Wales.

Robert Hitchcock, 54, who was in the other vehicle, died 'probably instantaneously' from the impact, from multiple injuries, a court heard.

Matthews-James, a biomedical scientist from Penygroes, north Wales, denies causing death by driving without due care and attention over the crash in February last year.

Prosecutor Jim Davies told Swansea Crown Court that Matthews-James's baby was delivered stillborn by emergency Caesarean section after she was admitted to hospital.

 She also suffered fractures to both legs, her right arm and bleeding to the brain.

Psychiatrist Dr Michael Alcock, who has since examined Matthews-James,  said she had memories of pain but had no recollection of the accident or her first seven days in hospital.

He said: 'Mrs Matthews-James told me her emotional state remains fragile and depressed (she said she) didn't want to bring a child into this world as she thought she was a bad mother having 'killed my baby'.'

Dr Alcock said Matthews-James told him she thought of Mr Hitchcock and would 'happily swap places' with him.

The court heard Matthews-James met her husband-to-be, Andrew, in 2002. They married in 2012 and decided to start a family.

Matthews-James cannot remember the accident, the court heard, but from details provided in court said she had taken over on the same stretch of road before

After struggling to conceive, the couple underwent IVF and Matthews-James was 28 weeks pregnant at the time of the collision.

Dr Alcock said: 'There is no doubt in my mind that Mrs Matthews-James has undergone severe physical and psychological trauma.

'In my opinion Mrs Matthews-James is suffering from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.'

The court heard she was driving to work at Glangwilli Hospital in Carmarthen, where she worked in the haematology department, when she overtook two other vehicles in one manoeuvre.

The driver of the lead vehicle said he would have been driving at 40mph while the court heard Matthews-Jam es's car was going at between 50 and 55mph.

The fatal crash happened on B4300 near Carmarthen, South Wales in February last year

Matthews-James told the jury she had driven that route to work for five years and had overtaken on the same stretch of road previously as 'you can see quite far ahead'.

She said she had thought of herself as a 'standard, average driver that tries to be considerate to other road users'.

Answering questions about mud on the route, Matthews-James said there had been mud on the route previously but never as much as she had seen from that day in the scene photographs that were taken.

Asked why she thought she might have decided to overtake, she added: 'From what I heard from the evidence, he (the lead driver) was going about 40mph which is 20mph below the speed limit so I may have just thought I don't want to do that all the way to Carm arthen.'

The court heard there was mud and gravel across both lanes of the road at a field gate near to the point of impact, which was where Matthews-James would have gone back to her lane from the overtake.

Matthews-James gave evidence at Swansea Crown Court (pictured) over the crash 

Forensic road accident investigator Peter Davey, for the defence, said these 'contaminants', which could have included frozen mud, on the road surface could have been what caused Matthews-James to lose control of her car.

He said witnesses had suggested the 'car was just driving normally, is just overtaking in a gradual even calm manner' and that her speed was not an issue.

'That to me suggests there's something wrong with the road surface,' he said. 

The trial continues. 

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