A MAN has pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving after a crash in which his friend died.

Nathan Dart, 21, of Vowels Lane, East Grinstead, admitted he had been driving too fast on the approach to a bend on Top Road, Sharpthorne.

The tragedy took place around 8.30pm on Saturday January 9, last year, a few minutes after Dart had picked up his 21-year-old friend Mark Scrace from his home in the village.

At Hove Crown Court yesterday Timothy Bergin, prosecuting, said one witness had described noticing the Peugeot 405 accelerating hard as it approached the bend, reaching an estimated 60 mph.

He said one of the car tyres was seriously deflated, causing it to over-steer on the bend as the car drove towards Forest Row.

He said: "Mr Dart tried to counteract the over-steer by pulling hard to the right on the steering wheel.

"This caused the rear of the vehicle to come around and he lost control of the car. It skidded in a clockwise motion and collided with a tree."

The passenger side of car, where Mr Scrace was sitting, was badly damaged by the impact.

He was trapped in the wreckage and later found to have died from a fractured neck, while Dart escaped with minor injuries.

In a police statement given soon afterwards, Dart claimed to have hit the accelerator by accident instead of the brake. Then he said: "My ABS didn't work and I just lost it."

Ian Lawrie, defending said: "He accepts that he was going a bit quick on the approach to the bend. He accepts the roads were icy and the way he drove was inappropriate."

Judge Kemp told Dart: "You have pleaded guilty to what you of all people must know is a very serious offence. All the court's

powers are open to me and that includes imprisonment."

Dart was disqualified from driving and remanded on bail to be sentenced on February 16.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.