A teenager accused of causing a crash which left a 17-year-old with severe injuries has been found not guilty following a Supreme Court trial.

Jahni Holder, 19, from Ridgeway Road, Pembroke, was yesterday found not guilty of causing grievous bodily harm to Rashaun Zuill while driving without insurance or a valid drivers licence by a unanimous verdict.

The ten-person jury also found Mr Holder not guilty of causing grievous bodily harm to Mr Zuill by driving without due care.

Both Mr Holder and Mr Zuill were severely injured in the head-on collision, which took place on the evening of November 9 last year near Marley Beach Cottages on South Road, Warwick.

Mr Zuill suffered a raft of injuries in the collision, including a broken right arm, right leg and right wrist, punctured right lung and road rash.

He was unable to testify in the trial, but said in a written statement that he remembers nothing of the collision itself, only waking up in a Boston hospital.

Mr Holder admitted riding the motorcycle without a drivers licence or insurance, pleading guilty to those charges before the trail began, but denied being responsible for causing the crash.

He told the court that on the evening of the crash he was travelling west along South Shore. He said he overtook a car near the Swizzle Inn, but had returned to his own lane and had slowed to around 50kph when he approached Marley Beach Cottages.

Mr Holder said he then saw a group of motorcycles in the process of overtaking traffic travelling towards him in his lane.

He said he attempted to turn to the left side of his lane in an attempt to avoid the collision, but was still struck. The crash knocked him unconscious, and he woke up in hospital with serious injuries.

The court heard Mr Holder suffered a collapsed lung and paralysis in his right arm among his injuries, and still wears a sling.

However prosecutor Larissa Burgess alleged the crash occurred in Mr Zuill’s lane, noting the testimony of Makinday Johansen, who was riding behind Mr Zuill, and police collision investigator Emerson Carrington.

Mr Johansen said he and Mr Zuill were in the centre of the eastbound lane and travelling at between 40 and 45kph when an oncoming motorcycle struck Mr Zuill head-on.

Inspector Carrington testified that based on the distribution of debris, scrape marks found in the road and where the motorcycles came to rest, the collision took place in the eastbound lane.

However that evidence was refuted by retired police collision investigator Gary Venning, a defence witness who argued that based on the field of debris the initial impact more likely took place in the westbound lane.