Teen death car 'double speed limit'

A CAR in which two teenagers died was travelling at more than double the speed limit before it crashed, a court has heard.

Philip Truong, 22, is on trial at the High Court in Edinburgh accused of racing and causing the deaths of two teenagers.

It is alleged that Truong raced with Zak Chan, 18, and that as a result Mr Chan lost control of his car and crashed into a tree, and he and his girlfriend Emily Chan, 18, died.

Pc Alistair Bain, 50, yesterday told the High Court in Edinburgh that the Mazda car Mr Chan had been driving had been analysed and that five seconds before the air bag inflated the vehicle was travelling at 82mph.

He said that when the airbag was deployed the car was travelling at 48mph. The speed limit for the stretch of road where the accident happened at Comiston Road and Frogston Road West is 30mph then 40mph.

Truong, of Southhouse Close, Edinburgh, denies causing the deaths of Mr Chan and Miss Chan by driving dangerously on July 21, 2009.

The trial, in front of Judge Lord Bracadale, continues.