A teenage driver who crashed his car, killing a close friend, had been reaching for a cigarette as he lost control, a court was told.

Bradford magistrates heard that 18-year-old Paul O'Connor, of Tisma Drive, Bierley, Bradford, died last December after the Ford Escort he was a front-seat passenger in left the main Bradford to Wakefield road, hit trees and plunged 15ft down an embankment. Another passenger was also seriously injured.

The driver, James Tate, 18, of Gelderd Road, Farnley, Leeds, was banned from driving for a year, fined £550 with £30 costs and ordered to retake the driving test.

He admitted careless driving and using a car with a defective tyre.

The court was told that Tate lost control while reaching out for a cigarette seconds after the car had successfully negotiated a sweeping left-hand bend.

A police investigation into the accident had concluded that the car mounted the kerb before striking bushes and colliding with a large tree, causing the vehicle to rotate, said prosecutor David Steer.

The tyre defect was not a contributory factor, he added.

Stephen Smithson, mitigating, said it had been a "momentary lapse of concentration'' as Tate reached for a cigarette.

"The deceased, the other occupant and the defendant were all close friends,'' he added. "The remorse is enormous.''

Tate was "a thoroughly sensible, clean-living individual who made one error of judgement'' and he knew that because of it someone else had paid the ultimate penalty.

Passing sentence, stipendiary magistrate Guy Hodgson Tate: "I accept that whatever I do with you today is perhaps of no great consequence compared to the fact you have to cope with the death of your friend arising from your momentary lapse."

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