A STUDENT teacher faces jail after she failed to explain how her car crashed resulting in the death of a pensoner.

A jury convicted Idoya Leon, 22, of causing the death of Margaret Dickinson by dangerous driving after she claimed there was a gap in her memory of her journey home to York.

She alleged she could not remember what happened between her approaching a left-hand bend, on the A64 between Rillington and Malton, and subsequently finding herself on the wrong side of the road with Mrs Dickinson’s car only metres in front of her.

York Crown Court heard the two cars collided at about 5pm on April 28 and 79-year-old Mrs Dickinson, from Rillington, died from her injuries. Each was travelling at about 50mph.

Adjourning Leon’s case for a report and releasing her on bail, the Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst, warned her she could be jailed and banned her from driving. Earlier, Leon alleged in the witness box: “I remember seeing the bend coming up. I was still on the straight stretch of road. It was still too early to turn in my opinion.

“Unfortunately, the next thing I remember is somehow I had drifted, I don’t know how far over, I was on the other side at this bend. There is a gap.

“The last thing (I remember before the crash) is the car coming towards me at that bend. Too late, I did try to swerve.

“The car was about five to ten metres away. It must have been milliseconds. I can remember seeing the car in front of me and then I was attempting to swerve.”

Her barrister, Paul Fleming, asked her: “Do you have any recollection of entering the bend at all?”

“No,” she replied.

Leon, then of Clifton Moor, York, and now of St Michael’s Close, Stafford, denied causing Mrs Dickinson’s death by dangerous driving.

The prosecution alleged she had about 16 seconds to see the bend, which had warning signs on and by the road, but failed to do so.

“Can you give any good reason for having failed to make the bend?” asked prosecution barrister John Elvidge.

“I cannot give a reason,” she replied.

She claimed the car radio was on, but she had not been changing channels or looking for a CD at the time. She also denied being distracted by looking out of the window, away from the road or having anything to hide.

Earlier, the jury heard her mobile phone had not been in use at the time of the crash.