A TAXI driver who ran over Sam Wilson as he lay in the road told a jury yesterday he did not realise it was a person until he was only feet away.

Dennis Ellerby said he was driving down Haxby Road towards York city centre having just dropped a fare in New Earswick when he noticed something ahead.

He told Leeds Crown Court it looked flat, “maybe slightly bumpy”.

“Did it look anything to you like a person lying in the road?” asked Graham Reeds QC prosecuting.

“Not initially, no,” said Mr Ellerby.

There was no movement and he said he only realised it was a body when he was “six, maybe seven feet” away.

The person was lying with the feet towards him. “I applied my brakes immediately,” he said. “I came to a standstill over the body.”

He told the jury he got out of his Volvo car after applying the handbrake and turning the engine off and tried to phone for an ambulance but could not do so. My hands were shaking, I was in a bit of shock.

“I was in a bad state really.”

On trial are three men from York, Linden Lee Smith, 20 of Kirkham Avenue, Bell Farm, Jack David Alexander, 21 of Fox Court, Huntington and Robbie Mark McHale, 20, of Fifth Avenue, Tang Hall who deny the manslaughter of Mr Wilson on October 11 last year.

The prosecution claim it was following an assault by them that Mr Wilson, 21, was unconscious in the road.

They also deny assaulting Mr Wilson’s friend Henry Smith.

Mr Ellerby told the jury he had been driving a taxi five or six years and his vehicle was regularly serviced and checked.

He wore glasses for reading and writing but not driving. That day had been busy because it was York Races but it was not continuous driving and he was not tired.

As he approached the area he saw a group of people walking towards him of three or four males and two females. He could hear loud voices as he passed them.

After the collision a female had approached him shouting and crying and he told her to phone for the ambulance. He said she urged him to move his vehicle and he got back into the taxi but did not do so.

Under cross-examination by Jason Pitter QC for Linden Smith, he denied he was distracted by the people on his left and “not focusing on the road”.

Gordon Cole QC, representing Alexander, suggested it was a well-lit road.

“As you were travelling along that road, I’m going to be blunt about it, you had every opportunity to see it was a person in the road, every chance to see it was somebody lying in the road.”

Mr Ellerby replied: “No I didn’t, no.”

He denied he had been distracted putting in or taking out money in a clip or wallet.

When he got back into the taxi after running over the body he denied he had reversed or moved it and said he had not heard anybody telling him to stop moving.

Mr Cole suggested the car had moved and “the movement of that car was catastrophic in what took place that night wasn’t it?”

“I didn’t move the car,” replied Mr Ellerby.

He agreed under cross-examination by Christopher Tehrani QC for McHale that he took medication for high blood pressure but said it did not affect his driving.

The trial continues on Monday.