Harrowing video footage taken from inside a car before a fatal collision has been shown to a jury in a death by dangerous driving trial.

Jordan Thomas, 29, suffered catastrophic injuries during the incident on Harbour Road, Onchan, on the evening of Sunday, February 25, 2024.

He was transferred to Aintree Hospital, Liverpool, where he died on March 4.

The driver of the BMW involved in the collision, 37-year-old Jackson Joseph Paul, is standing trial at the Court of General Gaol Delivery accused of causing death by dangerous driving.

Giving evidence in his defence today, Mr Paul denied that he had intended to drive forward and eject Mr Thomas from the front of the car.

Asked by his defence advocate Nick Johnson whether he was worried for his own safety, he replied: ‘Yes, of course.’

He told the jury: ‘I was just reacting to the crazy situation. I was fearful and panicked.’

Mr Paul said Mr Thomas punching his car had not caused him to brake, but had made him think he needed to get out of there.

Earlier in the trial, prosecutor Roger Kane told the jury that two videos taken by the defendant’s front-seat passenger were ‘by far and away the most important evidence in this case’.

The first shows Mr Thomas lying across the bonnet of the BMW on his stomach as the car reverses.

The car horn beeps as Mr Thomas is seen pulling on the windscreen wiper, while laughter can be heard.

At the end of the video, Mr Thomas is shown gesturing and saying: ‘Go, go, go.’

The second video shows him lying across the windscreen with the car moving forward before he slides down the bonnet and falls backwards onto the road.

The front-seat passenger is heard saying: ‘Slow, slow, slow,’ followed by: ‘No, no’.

Mr Paul’s black BMW had been heading up Harbour Road when the collision occurred.

The defendant, of Palace Road, Douglas, denies causing death by dangerous driving.

In police interview, he told officers he had feared for his life when Mr Thomas jumped on his car bonnet as he thought he was going to punch his way into the vehicle.

‘It was really panicky and scary,’ he said.

‘I was honking him and that aggravated him. He started punching the glass. If he had broken the glass he would have definitely killed me.’

Mr Paul said he had gone for an evening drive with his flatmate to get a coffee from McDonald’s before driving around Douglas and Onchan.

When they reached Harbour Road, he said they had to stop as there were a couple of cars in front which were moving off.

He said a man appeared from between parked cars and he stopped and motioned for him to cross the road.

Instead, Mr Thomas got onto the bonnet and grabbed the windscreen wipers.

‘His eyes were huge - he didn’t look right. He jumped on the bonnet and started pulling my windscreen wipers,’ Mr Paul told officers.

He said he had never seen Mr Thomas before.

Mr Paul said he reversed the car and braked, but as Mr Thomas started punching the windscreen, he accidentally drove forward rather than reversing.

He estimated his speed at between 25 and 30mph before braking hard.

‘I thought it was already in reverse but for some reason it was in drive,’ he said.

Asked during his police interview whether he thought his actions were justified, he replied: ‘I didn’t know what else to do. I’ve never been in this situation. This doesn’t happen in the Isle of Man.’

Police forensic collision investigator DC Claire Sproule-Craine said it was not possible to say definitively how fast the car was travelling or how hard it had braked.

She said it was travelling at a minimum of 20mph as she believed the automatic car had gone through two gear changes as it accelerated.

Defence expert and forensic collision investigator Huw Samuel said it was not possible to calculate a speed from the handheld mobile phone footage as any slight movement of the device would skew the result.

The Crown’s case is that reversing the vehicle, stopping and then accelerating to the speed and distance Mr Paul did, before braking hard, caused death by dangerous driving - and that he has exaggerated the terror he said he felt.

However, Mr Samuel told the jury that the motion of the car had caused Mr Thomas to lose his grip and slide down the front.

A joint accident report agreed by the prosecution and defence said the BMW had reversed for several metres before accelerating forward for 4.7 seconds and then braking to a halt.

The trial continues.