A MOTORIST said he was "blinded by the bright white lights" of a parked recovery truck on the A55 before a fatal collision with a person stood next to it. 

The trial of Martin Chard, of Cae Gwenith in Greenfield, continued at Mold Crown Court on Wednesday.

Chard, aged 52, has denied causing the death of Michael Barnicle, from Penrhyn Bay, on the A55 near Northop by driving a vehicle without due care and attention.

Chard told the court he had been "dazzled" by the lights of a truck which was in the process of recovering Mr Barnicle's broken down Vauxhall Grandland. 

Chard had been travelling on the westbound carriageway towards Greenfield when the collision occurred shortly before 1am on September 18, 2020.

He said shortly after passing junction 33 for Northop, he noticed "very bright white lights" ahead of him. 

"They looked like two headlights coming towards me, I thought they were on the other side of the road so carried on as normal," he said.

"As I got closer, they got brighter and then I wasn't sure which side of the road the lights were on. I tried to make out where they were and when I was closer through the glaze I realised it was a big truck. 

"I tried to swerve to the left, and would have been breaking." 

Chard said at that point he "clipped" the recovery truck, and saw a person (Mr Barnicle) who was "right in front of me".

Chard's car, a Vauxhall Astra, collided with Mr Barnicle, aged 44, and came to rest in hedges on the embankment on the side of the carriageway.

In his police interview, Chard said he had been "blinded by the lights" of the recovery truck.

"I couldn't make out where the lights were," he said. 

"I don't know at what point I realised it was a recovery truck on my side of the carriageway. When I realised what it was I swerved out of the way."

The court also heard from Toby Bowden, who had been working for LNS St Asaph Recovery and was tasked with recovering Mr Barnicle's broken down car on the night of the collision. 

Upon arriving on scene, he had placed his recovery truck in a 'fend off' position - the vehicle at a 10-degree angle, pointing its front end towards the carriageway in the direction the traffic should pass. 

Mr Bowden had switched on the truck's hazard and beacon lights situated on top of the vehicle. Once it was in position he switched on the 'working lights' - white lights which illuminate the rear of the truck to help him see clearly while working to recover the vehicle. 

Mr Barnicle was asked to stand at the side of the road while the Grandland was winched onto the flatbed. 

Mr Bowden, who is Institute of Vehicle Recovery qualified, told the court: "I noticed a car coming towards us, it was drifting and I knew it was going to collide with the wagon (recovery truck)."

At that point, he ran out into the road into the second lane, seconds before the car collided with the recovery truck. 

Asked if the police should have been called to assist with the breakdown due to a safety risk, Mr Bowden answered: "Every job has a risk to us and drivers, I didn't feel that the help of the police was needed at the time - I felt that the warning lights on the wagon were enough."

Caroline Jones, a crime scene investigator who stopped at the scene after passing the collision shortly after it occurred, said: "I noticed very bright white lights up ahead after joining the A55 at Northop. 

"At first I thought they were headlights on full beam and that there was a car coming towards me on the wrong side of the road. 

"After getting closer, I thought it was roadworks and then proceeded to follow the vehicle in front of me by moving out into the second lane."

She said at some point after that, she realised it was a recovery truck. As Miss Jones passed it, she saw a man (Mr Bowden) on the phone and a person lying further up the road. At that point she pulled over to offer assistance. 

Ian Thompson, a forensic collision investigator with North Wales Police was called to the scene at 1.05am, around 10 minutes after the incident occurred and remained there for the next five hours. 

The court heard he undertook a reconstruction of the collision. He said that due to a bend in the carriageway around 590 meters away from where the recovery truck was situated, it would be difficult to judge on what side of the carriageway it was positioned. 

But at 447 meters away, the road straightens and Mr Thompson said it was at that point he could clearly see the lights of the recovery truck were on the inside lane on the westbound carriageway. He said a vehicle doing 70mph would have had around 14 seconds to react and safely negotiate passing the truck on the outside lane. 

He estimates that Chard's car was doing no less than 37.5mph at the time the collision occurred. 

The court heard that the purpose of Chard's journey was to check if his estranged wife was at her home in Sandycroft, as he thought she may have been seeing another man. 

Asked in police interview whether this was playing on his mind at the time of the collision, Chard told officers: "No, I wasn't thinking about anything when I drove home."

The trial continues.