A case against a driver who hit a teenager as he crossed the road in the dark should never have come to court, magistrates have been told.

Two expert witnesses said there was not much Jack George Phillips, of Simpson Cross could have done to avoid the collision at Pelcomb Cross last March which left a teenager badly injured.

At around 7pm on March 5th, 2009 James Riddiford was crossing the unlit road with his friend Aled Phillips.

James was wearing a dark top and jogging diagonally across the road to get to Pelcomb Farm. Both boys maintained that they looked both ways before crossing the road.

Mr Phillips, aged 25, said he only saw the boys when his headlights picked them out.

He applied his brakes and swerved to avoid them, but as one boy stepped back the other darted forward and the collision occurred.

“I did everything I possibly could to avoid them,” Mr Phillips said.

“I don’t know what else I could have done.”

James sustained fractures to his right and left legs and left arm and spent nine weeks in hospital. The 16-year-old Pembrokeshire College student also spent seven weeks in a wheelchair and months on crutches.

PC 317 Gary Rees, an expert collision investigation officer for Dyfed-Powys Police, visited the scene of the accident three weeks after the crash. He later told the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) that he did not believe Mr Phillips should be prosecuted.

A report compiled by independent forensic collision investigator, Michael Handy, stated that the boys would have had a view of 200 metres down the road before they crossed.

However, the driver would have only have seen them when he was 50-60 metres away and picked them up in the beam of his headlights.

The report stated that because of the curve in the road it would have made little difference if the lights had been dipped or on full beam.

Allowing for a two second perception and reaction time the BMW would have been ten to 20 metres away from the boys when it began braking.

“There was nothing Mr Phillips could have done to avoid the accident,” Mr Handy told the court.

In his reply to the CPS, PC Rees agreed with Mr Handy’s report that, in the dark, the pedestrians would not have been visible to the driver until he was within 50-60 metres of them. Prior to the trial PC Rees had been asked by the CPS if there was a strong possibility of successful prosecution case.

He said: “I do not believe that that the driver should be prosecuted for this incident.

“I do not believe that the prosecution is a strong one with a strong chance of conviction.”

However, Mr Phillips was charged with driving without due care and attention.

He pleaded not guilty and a trial took place at Haverfordwest Magistrates Court last week.

After a trial lasting more than three hours magistrates returned a not guilty verdict, acquitting Mr Phillips of driving without due care and attention.

The presiding magistrate said: “We have given this a lot of thought and on the evidence before us we find that you are not guilty.

“We have heard evidence from two expert witnesses and in the absence of any expert prosecution witnesses we do have reasonable doubt.”