A teenage driver had been drinking before being involved in a crash which killed his friend, a court has been told.
Roland Simey (18) of Kilburn End in Oakham, was arrested following the death of 17-year-old Christopher Ellis on the A6003 between Uppingham and Caldecott on October 14 last year.
Simey denies causing death by dangerous driving or causing death b
y careless driving.
On Friday Leicester Crown Court heard that Simey, known as Grant to his friends, was over the drink-drive limit at the time of the crash.
The accident happened at around 4.15am but a blood sample wasn't taken until six hours later. Tests found that Simey had 31mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood at the time of the sample being taken - the legal limit is 80mg.
But forensic toxicologist Katie Squires, who gave evidence on Friday, said Simey would have been over the limit at the time of the crash.
She said: "As soon as alcohol is present in the body it starts to be eliminated, so over time the alcohol will have been constantly removed from his body. This is not the level of alcohol that would have been present at the time of the crash."
Miss Squires calculated Simey would have had 138mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood, although a range of 90mg to 179mg would be possible. She also said there was no trace on cannabis in his blood, despite the court hearing earlier in the trial that Simey had smoked a spliff that night.
He had been at an 18th birthday party in Oakham and decided to travel to Corby for food with some friends in a convoy of two cars sometime between 2am and 3am.
Simey, who passed his driving test six weeks earlier, was driving his Citreon Saxo with Mr Ellis as a passenger when the accident happened.
Simey suffered a fractured femur.
Defending, Professor Nicholas Birch said the blood sample results are unreliable because the analysis was delayed by two weeks because of a postal strike. He also argued that Simey would have been suffering from shock after the accident, which could have affected the results.
Professor Birch said: "When the liver isn't working properly it doesn't process alcohol so the amount of alcohol in the blood remains. If the alcohol is not removed it stays longer in the blood so any sample taken later would be higher than it should have been if the metabolism was normal."
Mr Ellis, of Manton, was a sixth-form student at The Rutland College, a former Uppingham Community College pupil and a promising rugby player.
The trial continues.
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