A young man injured two other road users by hitting their car at speed in a drink-drive collision, it has been alleged.

Theron Williams, 21, is accused of causing driver Sebastiao Jose DeMorais severe arm injuries in the early-morning crash and also hurting passenger Etel DaSilva.

Williams, of Town Hill Road, Smiths, denies causing grievous bodily harm to Mr. DeMorais by driving over the drink-drive limit and also causing actual bodily harm to Mr. DaSilva through dangerous driving.

Opening the case against him at Supreme Court yesterday, Senior Crown Counsel Carrington Mahoney told the jury Williams was over the blood-alcohol limit at the time of the collision in the early hours of January 30 2005.

He said Mr. DeMorais, who was driving a white Suzuki, was travelling with his friend Mr. DaSilva as a passenger along Middle Road toward Hamilton.

Mr. Mahoney said Williams was driving a Honda car in the opposite direction, toward Somerset, with two other passengers.

"He was, to use the layman's term, drunk. He was driving at a fast speed," said the prosecutor of Williams.

Near the Belmont Drive junction in Warwick, he alleged, Williams came on to Mr. DeMorias's side of the road and crashed into his car, pushing it back onto a wall by the sidewalk. The defendant, said Mr. Mahoney, identified himself as the driver on a number of occasions. When he was taken to Hamilton Police Station, an alco-analyser test showed him to be in excess of the legal limit, he alleged.

Mr. DeMorais, 55, a cleaner from Parsons Road, Pembroke, gave evidence in Portuguese with the assistance of interpreter Eddie DeMello. He told the jury he had been working at the Maximart in Somerset, leaving between 1.20 and 1.25 a.m. After picking up Mr. DaSilva from the Heron Bay MarketPlace he said he carried on toward Hamilton at between 30 and 35 KPH.

He described seeing a car coming toward him at speed on his side of the road, which then hit him.

"He said he tried to swerve but he couldn't do anything about it," interpreter Mr. DeMello translated. "He went into a coma and doesn't remember anything else...he woke up lying in a hospital bed and his arm was all smashed up."

At this point, Mr. DeMorais indicated a brace on his right arm and got the interpreter to tell the jury he spent 35 days in hospital. Under cross-examination from defence lawyer Leo Mills, he said he was not tired at the time of the accident, and is not a person who speeds.

Also giving evidence in Portuguese through interpreter Mr. DeMello, Mr. DaSilva, 44, said the other car had come "at very high speed" and hit theirs on Mr. DeMorais' side. He described his friend as "bleeding a lot" and said he tried to talk to him but got no reply.

Shawn Russell, a computer technician and reserve Police constable said he was driving east on Middle Road towards Hamilton at around 1.25 a.m.

"As I approached the corner of Belmont Drive I saw a vehicle approaching me at high speed in the opposite direction. This vehicle then started to encroach on my side of the road. I then manoeuvred my vehicle as far as I could up on to the sidewalk to avoid being hit. As our vehicles passed I then heard the screeching of tyres behind me and a loud bang," he told the court.

Mr. Russell — who estimated the other vehicle was travelling at least 80KPH — said he turned around and went to the accident scene where he saw an injured man in a white car. He said three men in their late teens and early twenties were nearby, one of whom identified himself as the driver of the other car involved.

"He started to say he was worried about his mother killing him because he destroyed her new car," said Mr. Russell of this man, who he did not identify in court. "I then told him he should be more concerned about the injuries of the passenger in the white vehicle."

Mr. Russell described the road conditions as good at the time, with clear visibility. Under cross-examination from Mr. Mills, he said he had not seen a fourth person make off from the Honda.

Dr. David Wakely, who treated Mr. DeMorais and Mr. DaSilva in the emergency department at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital said Mr. DeMorais had a large bruised laceration to his forehead and "complex fractures" to his arm. He complained of blindness when he arrived, although this cleared. Mr. DaSilva, he said, complained of chest pain but did not have any fractures.

The case continues.