A CAR'S passengers were singing a pop song and throwing a teddy bear around shortly before they were involved in a death crash, a jury was told.

Driver James Fisher said he may have been on the wrong side of the road because he was looking in his rear view mirror.

He wanted to find out what two back seat passengers were doing and whether they still had their seat-belts on.

He said at one stage his girlfriend, Katherine Davies, the front seat passenger, put the toy bear on the steering wheel and pretended it was driving.

Fisher recalled how he was dazzled by oncoming car lights on a bend and swerved to avoid them.

Miss Davies, aged 16, was killed after Fisher's Rover Metro skidded into a hedge and rolled over.

Fisher, 19, of Frenchlands, Lower Broadheath, near Worcester, denies causing death by dangerous driving on the B4197 Martley to Great Witley road on September 22 last year.

The defendant passed his driving test only seven months before the tragedy but had driven 10,000 miles, Worcester Crown Court heard.

He picked up two youths and Miss Davies and was heading for a party at Clows Top.

His passengers were "messing around" with a teddy taken from Miss Davies' Bromyard Downs home and he became distracted, he said.

"They were throwing the teddy bear, trying to get it off each other," he said, as he told the jury he was driving carelessly.

"I should have been paying more attention to the road rather than inside the car. I wasn't aware of where I was on the road.

"I panicked and swerved to avoid the oncoming car. I think I clipped the edge of the road and the car rolled over."

Fisher said he had been deeply upset by Miss Davies's death.

Accident investigator PC David Reece described how he found skid marks from the Metro on the wrong side of the Great Witley road.

"The driver misjudged his speed and course when entering the bend," he added.

"He took evasive action to avoid an oncoming vehicle and lost control."

The prosecution alleges Fisher, who had not drunk alcohol before the crash, was driving too fast and not concentrating.

The trial continues.