A driver who allegedly veered off the road, killing a man and injuring his wife while they slept in a tent, had no drugs or alcohol in his system, a jury heard yesterday.

The court also heard evidence that the driver, Calin Maybury, appeared distraught and prayed with the victim’s brother before police arrived at the scene.

Mr Maybury, 20, has denied charges of causing the death of Melvin Smith by careless driving when his car crashed into a tent on Kindley Field Road over the 2014 Cup Match holiday and causing grievous bodily harm to Dawn Santucci-Smith in the same incident.

As the trial continued yesterday, the jury was read a written statement by Mr Smith’s brother, Aldon Samuels, who was in a tent just 40ft away from where Mr Smith was killed.

In his statement, he said that around 12 people were in the group, which had set up camp on the north side of Kindley Field.

He said that, at around 6am, he was awoken by a loud bang. He quickly went to get out of the tent, but in his rush had issues with the tent’s zipper. When he was able to open the tent, he told his daughter to remain inside.

“As I left my tent I saw that a white vehicle had left the road and had struck their tent,” he said. “As I got closer to the tent I could see that the tent was flattened. I could hear my sister-in-law screaming in pain.”

Mr Samuels said he went to his brother and immediately saw that it looked like he had split his lip, although he could not say for sure where the blood had come from.

He wrote that he believed he called out his brother’s name, but he did not receive any response.

Mr Samuels said he then saw the driver of the vehicle walking back and forth, saying he appeared to be upset. He told the driver, who he later learnt was Mr Maybury, that Mr Smith was in a bad state.

“He said to me, ‘Let’s pray’,” Mr Samuels wrote. “We walked a short distance away and we prayed.”

Mr Smith was later pronounced dead at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital. According to a post mortem, he had suffered multiple organ failure. Mrs Smith, meanwhile, suffered a fractured vertebra, along with associated nerve damage.

The court also heard that after the crash Mr Maybury was arrested on suspicion of driving while impaired by drugs or alcohol having admitted to police that he had two beers sometime earlier. He was taken to the Hamilton Police Station, where he agreed to provide a sample of breath. That sample showed no alcohol in his blood, while blood tests conducted later found no traces of drugs.

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