A father-of-three wept as he told a jury he still could not explain why he failed to see a motorcyclist before a fatal collision on Saltaire Roundabout.

Stephen Rawlinson said he thought brawlers outside a pub had smashed his car windscreen with a missile when his Ford Focus struck Nigel Earnshaw’s Honda 125CC at 10.30pm on Sunday, September 5, last year.

Rawlinson, 26, of Upper Grange Avenue, Allerton, Bradford, denies causing Mr Earnshaw’s death by dangerous driving.

Giving evidence at Bradford Crown Court yesterday, he said he had held a full driving licence since he was 17 and had never been convicted of any criminal offence.

Rawlinson said he was on his way from his friend’s house in Shipley to pick up his grandmother when the crash happened. He was not in a hurry and he was not distracted by his phone or car radio.

Rawlinson said he recalled coming up to the zebra crossing on Saltaire Road where three young men were messing about in the road.

He next remembered his windscreen shattering and looking in his rear view mirror to see Mr Earnshaw lying in the road.

Mr Earnshaw, 58, from the Keighley area, who was travelling to work a night shift at Hallmark Cards in Bradford, suffered a broken leg and died in hospital on September 23 last year after developing a deep vein thrombosis.

Rawlinson said he pulled up, rang the emergency services and went to help Mr Earnshaw.

Rawlinson said he felt sick after the crash. “I just could not understand why I did not see him,” he said.

He told the jury he believed Mr Earnshaw would recover from his injuries and was deeply distressed when told by the police he had died. He said there was not a day went by when he did not think of him.

Prosecutor Richard Clews has told the court Mr Earnshaw entered the roundabout from the A650 Bingley Road and had right of way.

He said of Rawlinson: “He was either grossly inattentive or he was for some reason grossly distracted for a considerable period of time on the approach to the roundabout.”

Rawlinson told the court he accepted he should have seen Mr Earnshaw but did not believe he was driving dangerously.

The trial continues.