A taxi-driver wept at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court as he described the scene of a city-centre collision in which two people were killed.
The victims were Mr Richard Greene, vice-chairman of the Irish National Union of the Unemployed, and his daughter Christina. Mr Christopher Kearns said the accident was horrific. The deceased were in a Fiat Uno which was thrown on its roof. He saw people screaming inside but was unable to help them.
Mr Declan Martin (28), from Markievicz House, Pearse Street, is pleading not guilty to two counts of dangerous driving causing death, one count of dangerous driving causing serious harm to another person, unlawful use of a vehicle and driving without insurance on September 20th, 1999.
Mr Martin is alleged to have been the driver of a Saab 9000 which crashed into the Fiat at the junction of Townsend Street and Moss Street. A passenger in the Fiat Uno was seriously injured.
Mr Kearns told Ms Orla Crowe, prosecuting, he first noticed the Saab when it made a hazardous turn from a junction on Meath Street. He noticed the same car trying to make an illegal U-turn on Dame Street. He said he suspected the car was stolen. The Saab then drove in the same direction as his taxi.
When his taxi and the Saab were stopped almost parallel at the lights on the junction of Tara Street and Townsend Street, he noticed the driver was a man in his 20s wearing a white jacket with a stripe.
Mr Kearns said the Saab pulled off very quickly along Townsend Street.
There was no other traffic and when it reached the junction with Moss Street it broke the red light and smashed into the Fiat Uno which was coming from the left.
The Fiat Uno was hurled several yards along Townsend Street.
Mr Kearns told Ms Crowe the Fiat Uno was on its roof when he arrived and he alerted the emergency services.
It was badly damaged and he could see people in the car screaming.
Mr Kearns then saw the driver of the Saab get out of the vehicle, leave the scene and run up Mark Street.
Ms Lillian Kelly, who was a passenger in the Fiat Uno, said she was sitting in the back seat with Christina Greene.
They were facing each other and talking about a wedding that took place the previous weekend when suddenly there was a bang and she was knocked unconscious.
She told Ms Crowe she suffered several injuries to her head and ribs and her knees still hurt. Earlier, Det Garda Jerome Twomey said the Saab had been broken into by another man.
When this man was questioned by gardai he said someone named "Mark Ward" was the person who drove off in the car.
The trial is expected to continue for a week before Judge Dominic Lynch and a jury.