TEENAGE biker Norman Frost was driving at "breakneck speed" when the quad bike he and his 16-year-old girlfriend were riding crashed into a car, a court heard.

Witnesses who saw the bike in the seconds before the collision said Frost was going too fast, and that he travelled around a sharp bend "on two wheels".

His vehicle veered on to the wrong side of the road and hit a Citroën Picasso travelling the other way along High Street, Newchapel, on June 22 last year.

The impact of the crash threw Frost and his pillion passenger Tara Dawson into the road, and Frost got back on to the quad bike and drove off, leaving Tara, from Goldenhill, in the road. She was taken to hospital and died four days later.

Frost is now on trial at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court after pleading not guilty to causing her death by dangerous driving. The 19-year-old, of Hollywall Lane, Goldenhill, has already admitted causing death by careless driving.

Motorist Roger Chadwick and his wife Karen were travelling along High Street in the opposite direction to Frost, and saw the quad bike before the crash.

Mr Chadwick told the court yesterday: "The first thing I noticed was the noise – it was loud. Then it was the speed it was travelling. It was very fast.

"I said to my wife 'He's going to kill somebody'.

"The rider was low to the tank, with his head right down and his elbows sticking up.

"The bike shot out from behind a parked car abruptly and travelled at speed straight on."

When asked what impression he formed of how the bike was ridden, he replied: "Quite aggressive – too fast.

"Maybe if it wasn't for the speed I wouldn't have been drawn to it, but it was definitely at breakneck speed."

Mrs Chadwick told the court she remembered Frost sitting upright, but that it looked like he was "racing".

High Street resident Richard Moreton was in his garden when he saw Frost. He said in a statement: "Whatever speed he was doing, it was too fast for the approaching bend."

Jake Finney, aged 17, was with his family in a taxi travelling behind the Picasso Frost collided with.

He told the court: "I saw the quad coming around at speed – it was on two wheels.

"It drifted over to the other side of the road and hit the Picasso. It was travelling fast."

Jake's mother Louise Finney, a staff nurse, got out of the taxi to tend to Tara.

In a statement read to the court, she said she did not seem badly injured.

She said: "She seemed very calm. She was conscious and able to talk.

"She had no apparent bleeding. Her eyes were open and she responded to questioning. She initially said she was not in any pain and made a half-hearted attempt to get up."

It was later found Tara had a broken hip.

Police collision investigator PC Mark Mould told the court he was not called in to examine the scene until June 27, because it was not initially thought to be a serious accident.

He said there was no way to tell how fast the quad bike had been going before the accident, and the single skid mark left on the road by the quad bike had degraded by that time.

The trial continues.