unable to use his arms and legs.

Jerome Pitcher, of Texas Road, was giving evidence from a wheelchair on the first day of a dangerous driving trial in Magistrates' Court.

Shawn Antoine Simmons, of Sunny Side Lane, Southampton, denies causing Pitcher actual bodily harm by dangerous driving at Palmetto Road, Pembroke, on July 18 last year.

But Pitcher told the court he was travelling east, with pillion passenger Winslow Minors, on Palmetto Road that night when an oncoming motorcycle hit him.

Pitcher said while he did not see the motorcycle rider, he knew the rider was overtaking an oncoming car at the time of the collision.

"I couldn't tell you how fast it was going,'' he said. "All I know is he was overtaking and he didn't have any lights on.

"I don't remember anything after the collision. I just remember waking up in the hospital. When I woke up in the hospital I couldn't talk, I was just looking at my doctor.'' Pitcher suffered a broken right leg in two places and badly bruised his spinal cord that left him a quadriplegic.

Pitcher said he had come from a friend's house near Victor Scott School, at Glebe Road, and took a short cut through Bishop Spencer Road before the accident.

Simmons' lawyer Mr. Richard Hector asked Pitcher about the lighting. "I do not remember what time it was, it was dark,'' Pitcher said. "It was getting dark when I left my friend's house.

"I saw oncoming lights from a car. I was hit by a vehicle that had overtaken that same car.

"The person overtaking caused the accident. I didn't see him overtaking because he didn't have his lights on at the time. The only time I saw the bike was when we struck.

"If I had seen him I would not be in the predicament I'm in today.'' Minors told the court that after coming to the end of Bishop Spencer Road Pitcher remained stationary because they heard a car and a bike coming down the road.

"We didn't move at all,'' he said. "I saw the bike coming and the next thing I knew I flipped into the air. The speed that I heard didn't sound like we should go anywhere.'' Miguel Pereira, 17, who was riding in a car with his mother on Palmetto Road, said he saw two bikes riding fast, one with lights on and one without.

"There was a car behind the bikes,'' Pereira said. "The bikes were going fast.

"I saw a yellow Yamaha coming out from Bishop Spencer Road.

It stopped for my mother to go by and then it pulled out.

"After that I saw the bike with no lights and the yellow bike collide.'' The case continues on Tuesday before the Wor. John Judge. Sgt. Peter Giles is prosecuting.