by Keith Hunt

A police officer who crashed into another car killing the driver while on a surveillance operation has claimed he had no way of avoiding the collision.

DC Nigel Brown said he saw Felicity Austin’s Renault Megane coming towards his Skoda Octavia on the A21 Pembury Road on May 5 last year.

“Suddenly - it was like a blink - Miss Austin’s car was driving across the road directly at me as if she was about to, or trying, to overtake the vehicles on my offside,” he told Maidstone Crown Court.

The 47-year-old officer said he had passed specialist training courses in the Met Police and had driven high performance cars for about 15 years.

Safety was “paramount” in all operations.

The prosecution has alleged Brown’s unmarked car was straddling the central white line, while Miss Austin’s was on the correct side of the road at the time of the tragedy.

The 29-year-old Hadlow playgroup assistant was travelling at about 14mph, while Brown’s car was doing around 55mph, the jury heard.

The engaged mum-of-three was killed instantly.

Brown said his team had been pursuing a suspect on M40, before losing sight of him at the junction with the M25.

“I was driving at 100mph most of the time,” he said. “It was safe.”

There was no point when his driving was unsafe, he stressed.

On the A21 on a single carriageway, he drove down the centre of the road as traffic moved over.

“On the single carriageway the rest of the traffic was doing about 40-45mph,” he said.

“There was a channel in the centre at least one-and-a-half to two cars wide.

“I was constantly feathering the accelerator and brake on the way down the channel. I might need to stop at any time.”

Asked about the level of concentration, he said: “You can’t imagine. All you are focused on is the road ahead.”

He said he was not actually straddling the central line because the vehicles on his nearside had given him enough room to keep more to the left.

At the most, he said, his offside wheels would have been six inches over the line and most of the time on or just over the line.
Brown denies causing death by dangerous driving.

The trial continues.