A MOTORIST has told a jury of the moment his car hit two women on the A64 near Tadcaster.

Computer company director Kevin McGregor told the court he saw a Mercedes in the “unusual” position of stationary on the left-hand lane of the eastbound carriageway and moved to the right to overtake it.

“I suddenly realised that, out of the gloom and the dark, right ahead of me, there appeared to be one or two figures coming out of the darkness ahead,” he claimed at York Crown Court.

“I am in shock. It is the last thing you expect to see in the right hand lane of a fast carriageway. “Instinct and adrenaline kicked in and I automatically went through the action of making an emergency stop.

“I just remember there was a loud bang, the windscreen shattered on the passenger side,” he said in the witness box.

Jingning Wang, 20, of York, and Quan Qin, 21, who were passengers in the Mercedes, died following the collision.

McGregor, 40, of Gladstone Street, Acomb, who denies two charges of causing the women’s deaths by careless driving, alleged he remained in control of his vehicle until the emergency stop was finished.

“I just sat in the car and thought ‘oh my God, oh my God’.” He said since the collision he had continued to think about it. “I just feel remorseful and totally wretched about it,” he said.

He claimed he was in shock when he told police in interviews conducted on two different days after the crash that he saw two cars alongside each other just before the crash. He had been trying to rationalise in his mind what happened.The Mercedes’ driver Tien Cheng, 28, of Redcliffe Parade West, Bristol, denies two charges that he caused the women’s deaths by dangerous driving. He admits dangerous driving.

The jury has heard his car hit the central reservation in the early hours of November 29 last year and the two women got out of the car.

The jurors are expected to consider their verdict next week.