A woman told a court today that her boyfriend was teaching her how to drive minutes before the car struck a pensioner who died at a caravan park.
Kylie Johnston, 26, claimed Nathaniel Cooper told her to sit on his knee as they were on their way back to the holiday park from a garage.
She said she was scared because she had never driven a vehicle before and relied on him telling her what to do.
But she claimed her former partner grabbed the steering wheel from her after the back of the car narrowly missed a toilet block as it entered Balthangie Caravan Park at Cumineston.
Miss Johnston, of Stonehaven, said the 4X4 went out of control and then crashed into a static caravan on the site.
The vehicle also struck 65-year-old Andrew MacKay who ended up trapped underneath his holiday home, which moved off its stance, and he died at the scene.
Cooper, 30, of Inverbervie, is on trial at the High Court in Aberdeen accused of causing the pensioner’s death by driving dangerously on July 21, 2013.
Giving evidence, Miss Johnston said she sat in the driver’s seat after Cooper stopped his car on a lane leading to the caravan site where they were camping.
She said: “He said ‘Come and sit on my knee. I’ll teach you how to drive’.”
“He showed me how to put my foot down on the clutch and the accelerator lightly, that’s what he told me to do and it stalled three times.”
She said she gave up trying to use the pedals after the car stalled on the lane and had just been holding on to the steering wheel afterwards.
Miss Johnston told the court Cooper handled the gearstick and took control of the steering wheel after the car was driven into the holiday park in Aberdeenshire.
She said: “Everything happened so quick. The car was going about all over the place and everything.”
Miss Johnston, who is 4ft 11 inches tall, said she slid down to find the pedals before the car crashed into the caravan.
She added: “The car was going out of control. I was trying to find the brake and remember what he had told me.”
Miss Johnston said the car then crashed into the caravan and the couple both got out of the driver’s door. She said she saw Mr MacKay’s partner when she got out of the vehicle.
She cried as she told the court: “The lady was trying to find her husband and I think Nat found him under the car.
“I followed him.
“At that point he told me to run.”
Advocate depute Andrew Brown asked: “Did you run?”
She replied: “No. He told me to run and I was really sick.
“I was really badly in shock. The world just didn’t feel real at all.”
Defence lawyer David Moggach suggested that Miss Johnston wanted to “bring Mr Cooper down with her”.
But she replied: “No I don’t. I’m telling the truth.
“It was both of our faults.”
The lawyer then suggested that Miss Johnston had driven the car and ended up pressing the wrong pedal.
She replied: “That’s not what happened at all.”
Cooper denies the charge.
The jury has heard that Miss Johnston previously pled guilty to a charge relating to the case and the plea was accepted by the Crown.
The trial continues tomorrow.