A COMPANY director accused of causing the death by dangerous driving of a six-year-old boy has told a jury he never saw the car the youngster was in.

Brian Hopkinson, 73, says his vision was obscured by a smear on the windscreen of his vehicle after it started to rain shortly before the crash.

Mr Hopkinson's Vauxhall Vectra struck the back of a Vauxhall Corsa being driven by mother-oftwo Teresa Bull, on April 22 last year.

The Corsa was sent into the opposite carriageway and into the path of a Land Rover Discovery, the jury has been told.

Mrs Bull's six-year-old son, Matthew, suffered multiple injuries and could not be saved.

Mr Hopkinson, of Ellerbeck, Northallerton, North Yorkshire, denies driving dangerously.

Yesterday, he told Teesside Crown Court he accepted Matthew would still be alive had he not rammed his car. But he said he disputed prosecution claims that he had almost seven seconds to take evasive action to avoid the collision.

It is alleged Mrs Bull's car was stationary on the A167 Darlington to Northallerton road. She was indicating and waiting to turn right towards East Cowton.

The prosecution says Mr Hopkinson had adequate time to see the hatchback and either brake or pass on the inside. But he said yesterday that he was unaware of the car until a heavy impact forced his vehicle off the road.

Mr Hopkinson said he was driving from church in Darlington to his home near Northallerton when it began to spit with rain at about 1.30pm.

"I put the wipers on and I could not see as it was all smeared up,"

he said yesterday. "I went to put the washers on and it was then that there was a bang.

"I was not sure whether someone had run into me, but I knew there had been an accident - the airbag came up and made things even worse."

The jury is expected to be sent out today to consider its verdict