Teen relives accident in second trial

Amy Duncan would not have been hit if the two drivers had not been racing, says the Crown prosecutor. Photo / Richard Robinson.

It was a typical boozy teenage night out that ended with racing cars and tragedy.

The youth whose out-of-control car hit 19-year-old Amy Duncan - crushing her leg which had to be amputated - escaped jail after pleading guilty to street racing causing injury and drink driving.

Yesterday the driver he was overtaking, at the bottom of Bayview's Manuka Rd in April last year, went on trial in the Auckland District Court. Raymond Marsh, 19, is defending the charge of unlawful street racing causing injury.

His lawyer Geoff Anderson said he had slowed right down and was not racing when Kahn Roper's Mitsubishi Gallant overtook him and struck Ms Duncan. But Crown prosecutor Henry Bates told jurors it "took two to tango" in a street race and Ms Duncan would not have been hit, if not for his driving.

Since leaving a party at Roper's house - several kilometres away on Bonito Place - the pair had sped, jostled for position and overtaken each other, Mr Bates said.

"There doesn't need to be someone standing on the side of the road waving a chequered flag for it to be a race."

When the party was shut down, Ms Duncan and a carload of friends headed to the Manuka Reserve - a popular hang-out spot dubbed "No Man's Land".

Taking the stand yesterday, the amputee cried reliving the moments that followed.

Her friends had wandered off and she sat down to take a phone call.

Perched on the kerb chatting, Ms Duncan heard screeching brakes and turned to see the Mitsubishi bearing down. Then everything went black.

"The next thing I remember I felt like I was in a drier - it was just complete darkness, just tumbling around ... I thought I had died," she told the court.

Mr Bates said at first Ms Duncan laughed "thinking she was okay". But then her friends began screaming.

"It looked like her leg was hanging by a piece of skin," he said.

Friend Ellen Magennis wrapped a cardigan around it to try and stop the bleeding, while Nathan Hill nursed her head on his lap. Ms Duncan was taken to hospital where doctors were forced to amputate her left leg below the knee.

Yesterday witnesses agreed that Marsh overtook Roper at the top of Manuka Rd and had slowed by the time Roper pulled out, but disagreed on routes and speed along the way.

Roper was sentenced in March to 11 months' home detention, ordered to pay $8000 and disqualified from driving for two years. Marsh's trial is expected to last three days.