A PEDESTRIAN suffered serious injuries when she was hit by a van as two young drivers had a race through village streets, a court was told yesterday (Tuesday, September 9).

The woman's right knee was broken in two places, crushed on one side, and she needed a bone graft and a metal plate to repair the damage.

A jury at Teesside Crown Court heard how she was crossing Cemetery Road in Wheatley Hill, County Durham, when she was struck by a Ford Transit van.

Roy Morrison, 20, of Drum Lane Caravan Site in Chester-le-Street, County Durham, is alleged to have been driving the van on June 8 last year.

Another man, Jak Parker, of Crimdon Terrace, Blackhall Colliery, County Durham, has pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

The jury was told that the 23-year-old was behind the wheel of a high-powered MG XR which was seen to be racing the silver van shortly after midnight.

Prosecutor Robin Turton said neither of the vehicles stopped after the collision, but the van was noticed nearby by the victim's husband.

After Mr Morrison's arrest in nearby Horden half-an-hour later, he admitted being in Wheatley Hill to see a friend, but had not been in the crash.

He told police he had seen another silver van "fly down" and heard "screeching and screaming", said Mr Turton, before he drove out of the village.

Mr Turton told the jury that Parker, Mr Morrison and other friends were caught on CCTV earlier in the evening at a pub, and said it was "no coincidence".

He said there were very few vehicles on the road at the time, while an expert said the van was travelling at 71mph and the MG at 53mph in the 30mph zone.

In a statement read to the jury, the victim said she was crossing the road when she saw the two vehicles side-by-side with the van in the wrong carriageway.

"I tried to step back away from the van, and it hit me on the legs," she said. "I remember flying through the air, and hit the ground. I have gone unconscious at this time because I next remember waking up in the ambulance."

Mr Morrison denies a charge of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, and faces a trial which is expected to last into next week.

Mr Turton told the jury: "The Crown say the actual issue here is not whether the van was being driven dangerously or that it caused a serious injury.

"It is whether or not the defendant was driving that van . . . the fact Jak Parker has pleaded guilty suggests, does it not, that he accepts he was driving dangerously and it led to an injury."