A van driver accused of causing the death of a motorcycle rider in a head-on crash claimed yesterday that he saw nothing coming toward him prior to the collision.

Quinton George Ible told a Supreme Court jury he heard a bang as he was driving on South Road outside the Southampton Rangers' ground at about 11 p.m.

on September 28, 1998, but assumed someone had thrown something at his van.

Construction worker Humberto Pineda, 33, who was riding the motorcycle, died on his way to the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital after the crash.

Ible, 51, of Laurel Lane, Somerset, denies causing the death of Mr. Pineda by dangerous driving.

Yesterday he admitted he was drinking that evening and was impaired, but denied the crash was as a result of his being almost twice over the legal limit for alcohol.

He agreed he had 143 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood.

Ible, an electrician, said he was drinking with work colleagues at about 5 p.m. and had "one or two beers'' later at the Spring Garden Restaurant in Hamilton.

He left at about 10.30 p.m. and drove his left-hand drive van home along South Road. He was rounding the bend outside Southampton Rangers when "I heard a real loud bang''.

"I was on my side of the road and I thought someone had thrown something. I never saw any lights approaching me.

"I was going at normal speed when I heard the bang and ten to 15 yards up the road I stopped.

"I got out of the truck and went round the front of the truck and realised that someone had hit the front of the truck.

"I ran down the street to see what had happened and I saw the bike. I did not see him approach my truck at all, that's why I was really surprised that someone had hit the front of the truck.'' Crown counsel Patrick Doherty suggested Ible left Spring Garden at about 8 p.m., but the defendant said it was later.

Ible insisted it was as easy to drive a left-hand drive truck on Bermuda's roads as a right-hand vehicle because he hugged the side of the road to judge his position.

The jury and Assistant Justice Philip Storr heard on Tuesday from Police accident investigator Det. Con. Antoine Fox that the van was on the wrong side of the road at the time of the crash.

Jean Anne Nusum, a cook at Southampton Rangers, said she witnessed the crash while sitting on a balcony at the club.

She told Ible's lawyer Delroy Duncan that she heard what sounded like tin being scraped at the time of the collision. She said the van was on the correct side of the road and had on its lights but the bike did not.

She said she told Trent Lightbourne, a Police officer at the scene, that the bike did not have its lights on, but he did not ask her for a statement.

A few days later, the defendant's sister came round asking if anyone had seen the accident.

Under cross-examination, she told Mr. Doherty that the van must have stopped because "the guy must have thought someone had thrown something at the truck''.

Mr. Doherty said: "That's curious that you just said that. What makes you think he thought someone had thrown something at the truck?'' Ms Nusum said she thought of it because of the scraping, which sounded like something was caught under the wheel.

When pressed on why she thought the driver would think something was thrown at the van, she said: "I know what I thought.'' Mr. Doherty replied: "You did. I'm curious why you used those words.'' She told the court she had never met the defendant before or discussed the case with him and had only spoken to his sister when she came asking for witnesses.

She later confirmed to Mr. Doherty that she saw the bike when it came to rest at the club entrance but did not see it before the accident.