TEENAGE biker Norman Frost told police he was not driving dangerously when the quad bike he and his 16-year-old girlfriend were riding crashed into a car.

The impact of the crash in High Street, Newchapel, on June 22 last year threw Frost and pillion passenger Tara Dawson into the road.

Frost got back on to the quad bike and drove off leaving Tara, from Goldenhill, in the road.

She died four days later in hospital despite it initially appearing she hadn't suffered serious injuries.

Frost, aged 19, of Hollywall Lane, Goldenhill, denies causing death by dangerous driving, but has previously admitted causing death by careless driving.

Yesterday Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard that Frost told police that he had been driving along High Street at 30mph and slowed down to 25mph when he approached the bend.

In his police interview on June 26 Frost said: "I was driving down towards a bad corner and I know it is a bad corner so I slowed down. I was doing about 30mph but I slowed to 25mph.

"When I approached the bend I heard a bang. I jammed on the brakes but the quad just went straight.

"I tried to steer but it wouldn't turn. I don't know what happened. I know the speed I was doing and I wasn't driving dangerously."

The court heard that Frost went home, where he left the quad, before going round to his friend's house. He then rang the police and an ambulance.

Frost told police that the injuries Tara had suffered in the accident had not caused her death.

He said: "The doctor said that she had an enlarged heart and that it was a matter of time before it went off.

"It could have happened if she'd fallen over.

"It was like a nut in a shell waiting to explode. No-one knew about it until the accident."

The court was told that Frost had only had the bike for three or four months and that it was registered in his father's name, but that Frost was an insured driver.

When told by police of witnesses' accounts of the accident, Frost said it was "lies".

When told that one witness had said that the quad was on two wheels, and another said he was going "very fast", Frost replied: "It wasn't on two wheels at all. It is all lies. It can probably do 50mph top speed on a dual carriageway. I know the speed I was doing because the clock was right in front of my face, not theirs."

The trial continues.