Van driver Roger Bowen was impaired by alcohol when he hit and killed motorcyclist Larry Thomas, a prosecutor alleged yesterday.

Bowen, 26, denies responsibility for the collision that claimed the life of the popular bartender in the early hours of Saturday April 26, 2008.

Opening his trial at Supreme Court yesterday, prosecutor Nicole Smith said Bowen was driving west and Mr. Thomas, 34, was heading east when the collision occurred on Somerset Road in Sandys.

"The Crown says that Roger Bowen, driving that van on that road at that time while impaired caused the death of Larry Thomas," said Ms Smith.

She told the jury they will hear from a traffic expert who examined the scene and says Mr. Thomas was on the correct side of the road when the collision occurred.

They will also hear from a Police Sergeant who breathalysed Bowen after he was arrested.

Another witness, toxicologist Susan Grosse, will speak about Mr. Thomas having alcohol and cannabis in his bloodstream when she examined his body, according to Ms Smith.

The first person to give evidence in the case yesterday was corrections officer Norriette Davis, from Somerset. She was on her way home when she encountered the scene of the crash shortly after 3 a.m.

Ms Davis noticed Mr. Thomas lying in the road in the eastbound lane with his black Yamaha cycle nearby. She also saw Bowen standing in the road. When she asked what happened, Bowen is said to have replied: "This guy just hit my van."

Ms Davis loaned him her cell phone so he could call 911, and she tried to direct traffic while he got on the phone and tried to check if Mr. Thomas had a pulse.

"When the Police officers arrived he was a little upset so I tried to calm him down," she recalled. "He was pacing up and down saying 'I hope this guy don't die'. I told him 'just keep calm'."

Mr. Thomas' best friend Denton Burchall spent that night at the Salt Rock Grill bar and restaurant in Somerset village, where Mr. Thomas worked as a bartender and waiter. After he finished his shift they went to the nearby Sandys Boat Club to enjoy the rest of the evening.

"He was standing around telling jokes," he recalled of his friend, who lived near him in Southampton.

Mr. Burchall left Mr. Thomas at the boat club and took some people home to Dockyard in his car. On his way back home to Southampton later, he came across the scene of the crash.

He wiped tears from his eyes as he recalled the moment he saw his friend's body lying in the road, then got back in his car to go and tell his wife, Shirnall Thomas, what had happened.

Both Mr. Burchall and his nephew Darri Burchall, who was with them that night, denied seeing Mr. Thomas consume more than one alcoholic drink a Twisted Tea at the boat club. They denied suggestions from Bowen's lawyer Elizabeth Christopher that he had more than that to drink and also smoked cannabis.

Ronald Thorne, the owner of Salt Rock Grill, also saw Mr. Thomas consume one Twisted Tea at the boat club. He'd bought him a Twisted Tea earlier in the evening too, after he finished his shift.

Asked about Mr. Thomas' mood that night, he replied that he was "his normal self" which he described as "outgoing, gregarious, friendly and happy".

Bowen, of Cambridge Road, Sandys, denies causing death by driving with excess alcohol, and driving with excess alcohol. The case continues.