A JURY was told to put aside feelings for a car crash victim's family when reaching a verdict on a man accused of causing his death.

North-East soldier Mark Coates yesterday admitted being responsible for the accident in which pensioner James Balmer was killed.

He accepted his driving was careless, but denied it was dangerous in the moments before he spun off a busy road and sparked a tragic chain of events.

Mr Coates, 28, took one hand off the steering wheel of his Ford Mondeo to have a sip from a bottle of blackcurrant juice when he lost control of the car.

Teesside Crown Court has been told the saloon careered backwards down an embankment, crashed into a fence and startled a horse which broke free onto the A1 (M) motorway.

Motorist Mr Balmer, 71, of Whitehouse Drive, Stockton, Teesside, could not avoid a collision with the animal and suffered injuries from which he died two days after the crash on November 16 last year.

Judge David Bryant yesterday told the jury of nine men and three women to simply decide if Mr Coates's driving was below a competent standard and find him guilty of careless driving, or far below what would be expected and convict him of causing death by dangerous driving.

Mr Coates, of Stirling Avenue, Jarrow, South Tyneside, said he accepted responsibility for the crash, which happened south of Durham where the A177 and the A68 bisect the motorway.

But he denied claims from prosecution barrister Caroline Goodwin that he had driven dangerously and that he had looked away from the road while he picked up and replaced the bottle in the passenger side footwell.

The jury was expected to return to court today to continue its deliberations.