A DRIVER who struck and killed a motorcyclist said a wet road was to blame for the collision.

Jonathan Bridger, 20, told police Christopher Mason “may have been going too fast” when the collision happened at about 7.20pm on May 30 last year.

Bridger denies a charge of causing death by careless driving.

He said he lost control of his Toyota Yaris on a right-hand bend at the B4100 north of Bicester, his trial heard yesterday. In transcripts read out in court, he told police: “The main cause was the wet road. I don’t think anyone was to blame, to be honest.”

He said: “It was a wet road and it did skid on the road, causing me to go sideways and I think also the biker may have been going too fast.”

He said he was driving northbound at “just under” the 50mph speed limit but acknowledged 40mph was a more appropriate speed.

Bridger was returning home from work in the Villandry Grand Cafe, at Bicester Village, when the crash happened.

He said he braked approaching the bend, near Stoke Lyne, but his car drifted across the road.

He said he had previously overtaken a car doing about 40mph but had a “comfortable distance” to get in front of it.

Mr Mason, 59, of Mulberry Close, Bicester, was riding south when the collision happened.

Earlier, Oxfordshire County Council highways officer Keith Haines said tests last August showed that the road surface had deteriorated since 2009. He said: “The skid resistance has got worse.”

The trial of Bridger, of Shortlands Close, Helmdon, Northants, continues.