Martin Muir smashed into Robert Forsyth’s Citroen C3 and flipped it onto its side on a country road near Neilston in August 2013.

Mr Forsyth’s wife Jean, 84, was airlifted to hospital but passed away from chest injuries she sustained in the Greenfieldmuir Road collision.

Muir, of Ettrick Terrace, Johnstone, is currently on trial at Paisley Sheriff Court charged with causing her death by driving without due care and attention in his Skoda Octavia vRS sports car, which was fitted with a spoiler.

And yesterday (Tuesday) he said he phoned the emergency services after hitting the pensioners and has sleepless nights over Mrs Forsyth’s death.

He also told the jury at Paisley Sheriff Court that he felt there was nothing he could have done to avoid hitting the Forsyth vehicle and had hit them after trying to drive passed their car and into a field.

Speaking about the effect Mrs Forsyth’s death has had on him, he told his Advocate John McElroy, defending: “I found that out when I got to the hospital.

“I don’t sleep - the doctor put me on anti-depressants.

“I wake up regularly and I have flashbacks.

“It’s really quite bad.” The 27-year-old said the crash put him off driving and he did not get behind the wheel for quite some time — until the person who drove him to his work in Rosyth, where he works, fell ill.

He said he saw the Forsyths’ vehicle “at the last minute” and had to make a “split-second decision” about what to do.

He said he had his daughter Lucy, six, and step-daughter Keira, 10, in the vehicle at the time and was “trying to be as safe as possible” with his driving as a result.

Muir said that, when he saw the Forsyths’ vehicle he had to decide if he was going to crash into a wall that was on his left or try and drive passed them into a field.

He said he tried to steer his car into a field but hit the Forsyths, killing Jean and injuring Robert, 94.

He explained: “I didn’t know his name at the time but I know it now - Mr Forsyth.

“I could see his face.

“He didn’t do anything.

“No braking, no evasion, no nothing.

“I chose to go into the field.

“He 100 per cent froze.

“He didn’t do anything at all.

“I don’t think he applied the brakes or anything.” Trying to go into the field meant Muir hit the Forsyths almost head on and sent their car spinning onto its side and thrust it backwards, coming to a stop on the passengers side.

He said: “I got my girls out and got them to a safe place.

“They were crying, screaming, they were really very upset.

“I put them up on a safe place away from the car because you don’t know what’s going to happen — it could go on fire.” Muir denies causing Mrs Forsyth’s death by driving without due care and attention and at the time of going to press the trial, before Sheriff Seith Ireland, was ongoing.