A riding school owner is taking legal action against the cement truck company which has been accused of killing a horse in a road collision last week.

The horse's death was the latest road fatality and was a senseless tragedy, according to Spicelands Riding Centre owner Catrina Adcock. Owner of Bierman's Michael Bierman and a driver who witnessed the accident contacted The Royal Gazette to explain their version of the events after this newspaper was unable to contact Mr. Bierman for comment.

Ms Adcock claimed the horses were crossing South Shore Road coming out of the Warwick Long Bay exit last Wednesday when the truck came speeding around the corner and hit a horse.

The tourists and the trail guide were attempting to get onto Tribe Road Number Seven, but Ms Adcock, who did not witness the accident and received the details from her trail guide, said the horse froze in the street when it heard the truck.

She said the truck did not stop and hit the horse on the right flank, resulting in severe injuries. According to Mr. Bierman these events are untrue and have created bad publicity for his business, calling it a “feeding frenzy of misinformation”.

Mr. Bierman added: “I want to stress that this driver is a responsible man who does not speed, I take offence knowing people shoot their mouths off without knowing the facts. He has been unfairly speared with a bunch of lies. The driver did his best to avoid the horse, the horse backed into the truck. My driver said one of tourists told him the horse was out of control.”

Mr. Bierman said he can track his trucks with his GPS system and the truck was not going any faster than 26mph at the time according to the system. He said the speed prior to impact was seven miles per hour.

“This is the best driver I have. He was carrying a load, bringing concrete to a job site which was just down the street and he was not speeding.”

Mr. Bierman said this was an accident which could have been avoided but the horse was bucking and kicking and was out of control. Driver Olga Carmichael said she witnessed the accident as she was driving along South Shore Road and said yesterday the driver was not speeding.

Mrs. Carmichael said the horses had already crossed the road, but the horse spooked and ran into the truck.

“A black car in front of me pulled over on grass, the horses had already crossed the road, and at this time the truck wasn't anywhere in sight,” said Mrs. Carmichael. “We pulled over to the side, this time the guide was trying to get the horse under control.”

She said the horse was obviously nervous and began bucking.

“The horse ran into the truck, the driver went onto the grass to try to avoid the horse, on the opposite side of where we were parked. At this time the horses started bucking, one of the riders was thrown to the ground in the commotion,” she said.

“The horse looked like it was getting ready to get back into the road, it ran into the truck, I was looking right at it, the horse heard the sound, but what was the driver going to do - the horse heard him and reacted to the sound,” she added.

Ms Adcock, who spoke about the suffering of her horse after the accident, said she contacted the media to report the fatality and did not wish to create problems for Mr. Bierman.

“We didn't bad mouth him, he wasn't driving the truck, I'm upset with the driver and the whole situation. The horse had died as a result of this accident. It was not our intention to create bad publicity for Mr. Bierman.”