Jury told Swansea taxi crash accused 'were obviously racing'

THE judge's summing-up was expected to begin today in the Swansea Crown Court trial of two motorists charged following the death of a city taxi driver.

Peugeot 106 driver Nathan Hunt and Citroen Saxo driver Michael Davies were allegedly racing each other at high speed when cabbie Martin Griffiths was killed last year.

The defendants were travelling along the eastbound carriageway of the A483 — Fabian Way — when Hunt's car hit the central reservation, became airborne and smashed into the taxi of Mr Griffiths, who was heading in the opposite direction.

Hunt, aged 23, of The Meadows, Cimla, Neath, and Davies, aged 21, of Heol y Fran, Morriston, Swansea, deny causing death by dangerous driving.

Giving evidence this week, both insisted they were not racing when the fatality happened shortly before midnight on February 7.

But yesterday, in his closing speech on behalf of the prosecution, barrister Jim Davis claimed the jury could be sure the defendants had been racing and that this racing had caused the collision.

It was significant, said Mr Davis, that witness Matthew Fender had described seeing two cars just five yards apart as they raced past the Shell petrol station just before the crash occurred.

"We say these two cars described by Mr Fender were quite obviously the two cars of the defendants," said Mr Davis.

Verdict deliberations by the jury of six men and six women are due to begin on Monday following the completion of Judge Huw Davies's summing-up.

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