THE son of a man who died in an ambulance crash in Hampshire tried to reach his father in the seconds after the collision, a court heard.

David Ironside, 64, was travelling in the back of the vehicle with his father, Francis, after the 88-year-old collapsed at his home in the New Forest.

The retired army officer and paramedic Gillian Randall, 42, were killed on April 27 last year after the ambulance was involved in a collision with a Seat Alhambra driven by Richard Husband.

The 26-year-old of New Forest Drive, Brockenhurst, who is on trial at Bournemouth Crown Court, denies two counts of causing death by careless driving.

Prosecutors allege that the crash took place when he failed to spot the ambulance overtaking on the A337 Brockenhurst to Lyndhurst road, and attempted to overtake a silver Skoda Yeti that had pulled over to allow the vehicle to safely pass.

A statement written by Mr Ironside following the collision was read in court by Kerry Maylin of the Crown Prosecution Service.

In it, he said that paramedic Richard Riley, 32, was attending to the patient in the back of the ambulance as it rushed towards Southampton General Hospital when the crash occurred.

“The ambulance went up a grass verge,” he said.

“We stopped. Nothing moved. I tried to stand up but couldn’t. When I undid my seatbelt, I collapsed on the floor. Dad was still facing me and appeared to be alive. I believe he was still breathing. I couldn’t get up to attend to him.”

He said Mr Riley was lying on the floor, “conscious but not coherent”, and members of the public who had witnessed the accident carried him out of the vehicle.

David Ironside suffered extensive injuries in the collision, including a pelvis fractured in three places.

Proceeding.