A motorcyclist seriously injured in a collision with a police inspector was travelling at more than twice the speed limit, according to an investigator.

Michael Prime, a traffic collision investigator with the British-based Keith Borer Consultants, said based on CCTV footage Oronde Wilson Jr was travelling at between 73kph and 86kph when the crash took place.

Mr Prime added: “At the speed limit, there would have been no problem at all. Mr Wilson would not have had to slow at all, because Barry Richards would have already cleared the lane before he got there.

“Even up to a little over 50kph the rider would not have needed to take evasive action.

“At 59km/hh, provided he reacted promptly, Mr Wilson could have stopped prior to impact.”

Mr Richards, a 50-year-old inspector with the Bermuda Police Service, has denied causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Wilson by driving without due care and attention.

Prosecutors have said he was on his mobile phone and distracted when his car and a motorcycle collided at the junction of North Shore Road and My Lord’s Bay Road in Hamilton Parish on September 19, 2017.

Mr Wilson lost a toe as a result of the crash and his foot was so badly broken, it needed steel rods put in it.

He added that he also suffered a punctured lung and brain injuries in the collision, which had affected his memory.

Mr Wilson has said he remembered nothing of the collision, and Mr Richards told the Supreme Court yesterday he would not give evidence himself.

One witness, Corte Gibbons, said he was on the phone with Mr Richards when the collision took place. He told the court he only later discovered that Mr Wilson, his tenant and a family friend, had also been involved.

CCTV from the scene of the crash shows Mr Richards began to pull into My Lord’s Bay Road when Mr Wilson’s motorcycle struck his car near the driver’s side door.

The car was visibly rocked by the impact, but continued to turn, making a full 180-degree turn over a sidewalk, through a wooden fence and on to a grassy area. The vehicle continued parallel to North Shore Road for a distance before it came to a complete stop.

Mr Prime, a defence witness, told the court that he reviewed the CCTV footage of the collision. He said that he could use the footage, combined with measurements from the scene to determine the speed of the vehicles involved.

Mr Prime said the video showed Mr Wilson ride over a pedestrian crossing no more than 1.2 seconds before he struck the car, and that the crosswalk was about 26 metres away from the point of impact.

He also took a second measurement, based on a fixed point 17 metres from the point of impact and found Mr Wilson had travelled that distance in 1.13 seconds.

He said he compared the results and, with a margin of error taken into account, he estimated Mr Wilson was travelling at an average speed of between 73km/h and 86km/h.

Mr Prime also found that Mr Richards had taken less than two seconds to completely cross the lane as he pulled into My Lord’s Bay Road, and estimated the two motorists would have been able to see each other when they were still about 38 metres apart.

He said: “The collision may have been avoided if Mr Richards had waited a few seconds before turning right.

“The collision could have been avoided by Mr Wilson if he had been driving at the speed limit or even in excess of the speed limit up to about 59kph.”

The trial continues.

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