A DEAF driver was “going too fast” when he lost control of his car and crashed it into a tree, killing his back seat passenger, a jury was told.

Stephen Hocknell had been driving home from work with his two pals, local footballer Callum MacKinnon and Peter Hayes, when he went too fast into a bend on a country road, Oxford Crown Court heard.

The 21-year-old, from Carterton, denies causing death by careless driving.

Despite hitting the brakes and frantically trying to steer the Citroen C3, it span out of his control and slammed side-on into a tree on September 7 last year.

Hocknell, who suffers profound deafness, and front-seat passenger Mr Hayes escaped with minor injuries, but Mr MacKinnon, 18, suffered the full impact.

Roger Coventry, prosecuting, told how Mr MacKinnon had been in the back seat on the left-hand side of the car as they drove back from the Burford Garden Centre, along the B4020 Shilton Road.

He said: “Stephen Hocknell drove carelessly. How was he careless? He drove too fast for the road, too fast for the type of car that he had.”

Investigators were unable to pinpoint the speed at which Hocknell had been driving but said skid marks showed he had been travelling ‘excessively fast’.

The trial continues.