A MUM has gone on trial charged with causing the death of her 11-year-old son by careless driving.

It follows a fatal road accident in April 2010 on the A55 at Northop Hall when the prosecution allege that Karen Evans, 36, left it too late to turn off the dual-carriageway to get fuel.

Prosecuting barrister Oliver King told the jury at Mold Crown Court that Mrs Evans was in a rush because her son Jordan Evans was late for school.

It is claimed she was driving too fast and erratically is her Vauxhall Corsa with her two daughters and her son in the vehicle.

Mr King said that Jordan, who had autism, had missed the school bus and she decided to drive him to the school in Flint instead.

But it was the prosecution case that she was running low on fuel and she made a last minute decision, while overtaking another vehicle, to turn left into a slip-road leading to services.

She drove from the outside lane, across the front of a car she had just overtaken, to get into the slip road but lost control.

The car somersaulted on an embankment and ended up back on its wheels, badly damaged.

Jordan, a rear seat passenger, was declared dead at the scene. He was found to have a severe blunt force head injury as a result of the collision.

Mrs Evans denies a charge of causing his death by careless driving and says the accident was caused by a mechanical fault.

She told police the car steering developed a shudder and that she attempted to slow down and turn safely into the slip road.

Mr King said that while a police vehicle examiner found that a nut on the steering wheel was loose and that the steering wheel could move backwards and forwards, that would not have affected the steering of the vehicle to the right or left.

The prosecution case was that Mrs Evans, of The Nook, Mancot, either drove that way because she grossly over-reacted to the movement of the steering wheel.

Or, bearing in mind that the petrol light was on, she was attempting to exit the carriageway to re-fuel, but left it far too late with dire consequences.
Proceeding.