Driver claims he didn't see cyclists before his windscreen shattered

Omesh Ramnarain claims that he didn’t see two Durban cyclists that he struck with his car in 2016.

He took the stand in the Durban Regional Court on Wednesday at the outset of his defence against two charges of culpable homicide relating to the death of Richard da Silva and Jarred Dwyer.

Ramnarain is accused of driving his car into the pair during their cycle training on the M4 freeway that February.

The businessman claimed that he had been following a car which had swerved at the last minute‚ all before his windscreen shattered.

He said he didn’t know if his windscreen shattered because a rock was thrown at it.

Magistrate Anand Maharaj asked Ramnarain if he agreed that whether or not the cyclists were meant to be there‚ he had a duty to be circumspect and observant.

“Two people died. We need to understand whether you were responsible or not‚” he said.

In a plea statement read into the court record during the initial stages of the trial‚ Ramnarain revealed his version of events that led to the deaths of the two men.

He claimed that he had spent the night on the town and consumed four bottles of cider before his car slammed into Da Silva and Dwyer. But he was adamant that he was not drunk. “I was not under the influence of alcohol at the time and drove myself and my friend onto the M4 toward Umhlanga Rocks‚" he said in his statement.

He wove a story of how he’d been following another car as they travelled north.

“After the car [he had been following] almost passed the Swapo Road [formerly Broadway Road] off-ramp it suddenly swerved left toward the glide-off moving onto the glide-off at the last possible moment.

"I continued straight in my lane and moments later heard a loud bang and my windscreen shattered. I braked and moved toward the left and heard another bang... I could not see out of my smashed windscreen.”

His trial continues with closing arguments expected to be delivered on Thursday.