A WOMAN whose husband died after she drove on to a pavement and collided with him following a row was driving 'very slowly' at the time of the impact, a court was told.

Police accident investigator Jeffrey Cribbs told a jury that if Suzanne Knox, who had her two young children in the car, had been driving any faster there would have been more damage to a fence and hedge where her 30-year-old husband Anthony Knox had been sitting.

Although he could not say exactly how fast the car was going, he said, he could say it was travelling at a 'very low speed' when it hit Mr Knox.

In his opinion Mr Knox had been sitting on the pavement in Woods Loke East, Lowestoft, with his back against a fence and had not been lying down or standing up when he was struck by their Renault Scenic car on September 21 last year.

Mr Cribbs was giving evidence on Tuesday in the second day of Mrs Knox's trial at Ipswich Crown Court.

He told the jury a tyre impression had been found on Mr Knox's chest and this appeared to match one of the Renault's front tyres but he was unable to say if Mr Knox was moving or had started to get up when he was hit by the car.

However, he accepted that Knox's account of the incident to the police in which she said her husband had been getting up was plausible.

Knox, 25, of Great Yarmouth, has denied causing her husband's death by dangerous driving but has admitted a less serious charge of causing his death by careless driving.

The court has heard that Knox went out looking for her husband after a row and had driven to the Norman Warrior pub in Lowestoft to see if he was there.

Shortly after being told that he had just left the pub, Knox saw him sitting on the pavement in Woods Loke East and allegedly turned the steering wheel sharply to the left and had struck him with the car after mounting the kerb.

Following the collision, Knox, who was described by witnesses as being 'hysterical', had called the emergency services. Mr Knox was rushed to hospital with a police escort but died several hours later.

He had suffered multiple broken ribs, internal bleeding and collapsed lungs and died from his chest injuries.

Knox told police she had gone looking for her husband after an argument and claimed she had pulled on the pavement to talk to him. She said she hadn't intended to harm him and had only realised she had hit him when she got out of the car.

The trial continues.