A 41-year-old mother has gone on trial charged with careless driving after a schoolgirl died crossing a road as she walked home.

Amy Howard, 12, of Crossbank Road, Addingham, had got off a bus on the A65 village bypass when she was struck by a Honda CRV driven by Alison Dewhurst.

Bingley magistrates were told yesterday that Dewhurst had picked up her daughter from a school in Ilkley and was driving home when the incident happened in December 2006.

Although motorists stopped and tried to resuscitate Amy, she was pronounced dead on arrival at Airedale General Hospital in Steeton.

Opening the trial, prosecutor Richard Smith, said: "The prosecution says that for a driver to travel along the road in those conditions and not to see a pedestrian to the point of impact is evidence that the driver was not displaying the care and attention that a motorist ought to have done in those circumstances."

Giving evidence Carmel Derbyshire, a nurse from Barnoldswick, said she pulled up to help a woman who was "waving frantically" at the side at the road behind a car.

Mrs Derbyshire said: "She said I've hit her, I've killed her'. I got my mobile phone out to call for assistance and as I turned around that's when I saw Amy in the grass verge on the roadside." She said it was dark and it was raining and told the court that the bus stop was not illum- inated.

PC Steve Mann, who was the first police officer to reach the scene, said he had found a crowd of people crouched over Amy with Mrs Derbyshire trying to resuscitate her. He said Amy was not breathing.

PC Phil Jackson, who investigated the incident, said tests showed Dewhurst was driving below the road's 60mph speed limit when the collision occurred.

"Based on a calculation the vehicle was driving between 38 and 46 mph," he said.

Dewhurst's solicitor Richard Green asked PC Jackson: "Would a driver driving up the hill here, on that night, at that time, be able to see Amy in dark clothes on the other side of the road?" In response PC Jackson said: "I suggest it would be very difficult."

Dewhurst, of The Rookery, Kirkby Malham, denies the charge.

The trial continues.