A DRIVER who knocked down and killed a cyclist denied she had driven through a red light.

Julia Moore told a court there was nothing she could have done to avoid hitting Greg Dear, who was wheeling his bike across the road.

Moore, 31, is accused of causing the death of Mr Dear, 27, of Cliff Road, Freemantle, Southampton, after allegedly driving her Fiat Punto through a red light on the morning of October 16, 2008.

But when asked by defence barrister Peter Asteris whether she had driven through the red light in Millbrook Road West, with the junction of Regents Park Road, Moore replied: “No.”

She told Southampton Crown Court how she had left her former Lordshill home to her work as a recruitment consultant in Southampton city centre.

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When asked what happened when she got to the junction, Moore said: “Before I got to the stop line I looked again at the road in front of me.

“I saw the lights were still on green. I glanced across to the traffic to the lane next to me to make sure no one is indicating and coming in front of me from the middle lane.”

She said there were still cars crossing the junction ahead and that there were cars in the middle lane going on ahead and next to her.

“The next thing I see I look back and the cyclist is in front of me in what appears to be the middle of my lane.”

She added: “It all happened so fast but also as if time was slowing down.”

“I immediately put my foot on the brake but I know I am going to hit him.”

She described how she had to keep her car in a straight line in her lane because there were cars next to her.

“Within that split second the roof comes in and the windscreen shatters.”

When asked by Mr Asteris the colour of the traffic light as she crossed the stop line, Moore replied: “As I see him (the cyclist), I see an amber light.”

The jury was told that Moore had a clean driving licence and had never been involved in any traffic incidents.

She told the jury “I can see my whole journey that morning. I can visually remember it.

“I remember it every day. There is not a day that goes by when I don’t think about it.

“I have to drive through that junction every time I go to work.”

Moore, of Rownhams Road, Southampton, denies causing death by dangerous driving.

The prosecution yesterday also offered the jury an alternative count of causing death by careless driving. Proceeding