A 73-year-old whose car killed a motorcyclist has claimed he thought he was safe to drive because he had an optician's check-up just two weeks earlier.

William Searle was found to have defective eyesight after the crash in Newton Abbot which killed 53-year-old businessman Jerry Daniell.

He told Exeter Crown Court he had no idea there was a problem with his vision before the accident in Milber Road on September 22 last year.

Mr Daniell was riding his Yamaha motorbike down Shaldon Road when Searle’s Mercedes pulled out from the entrance of a garage workshop at Milber into his path.

The accident occurred just two days after Searle’s driving licence had been renewed by the DVLA on the basis of an optician’s report.

Police carried out their own check on his eyesight two days after the fatal crash and he was unable to read two numberplates from a distance of 10 metres.

Searle had signed a form for the routine renewal of his licence in which he ticked a box to say he could read a numberplate from that distance.

After the accident and the police’s roadside eye test he surrendered his licence but reapplied two months later, once again claiming that his eyesight was adequate.

Searle, who will be 74 tomorrow, denies causing death by careless driving.

Miss Bathsheba Cassel, prosecuting, said Mr Daniell was driving perfectly well at below the 30 mph speed limit when Searle pulled out into his path, causing a fatal accident.

A police collision expert worked out that Searle should have been able to see Mr Daniell and his bike for between five and 12 seconds.

She said Searle had laser surgery on his one eye in April 2016 and had an eye test on September 8 as part of his routine application to renew his licence, which led to it being returned on September 20.

Searle, who suffers from diabetes and an irregular heart beat, told the jury he believed he was safe to drive and that his eyesight was not defective.

He said on the afternoon of the crash a mechanic had delivered a Land Rover which had been repaired at the garage at Milber and he had driven him back. He said the accident happened as he was leaving the yard.

He said: ‘I looked with care. I looked right and then left and then right and pulled out. I did not see anything happen and then I heard a big bang and that was it.

‘I was driving as I normally would. I heard the bump and thought something had hit me from behind. Ever since the accident my memory has been clicking on and off.

‘I never saw the motorcycle. I cannot answer why I did not see it. I had had my eyes checked. They never said anything about me not being able to drive.’