A Beaminster woman who knocked down a 79-year-old Bridport man - who later died from his injuries - has been convicted of careless driving after a two-day trial.

Magistrates at Bridport decided that Vicky Louise Butler, 22, should have seen Gordon Simmons as he crossed the road near the town hall on a dark winter's evening last February.

Butler's car hit him and threw him into the air as it headed east through the town centre. He died two days later in Dorset County Hospital from a brain haemorrhage.

Butler, who pleaded not guilty, was receiving methadone treatment at the time of the accident, the bench was told. It was her second conviction for careless driving.

Imposing a one year's driving ban and £250 fine, the magistrates told her: "It was a dark night, the road was wet and there was reflected light - we accept that. But the same conditions occur frequently in any town.

"On a straight, well-it road we cannot accept that a pedestrian could not be seen by a careful driver considering the road ahead."

Earlier, lorry driver Owen Edwards, from Wolverhampton, told the court how he stopped to let Mr Simmons cross the road - and then watched in horror as he was hit.

He said he had been driving his two children back to their home in Chideock at about 7.50pm on February 5. He was nearing the town hall traffic lights - about 20 metres away - when he saw Mr Simmons on his right hand side putting his foot into the road.

"I slowed and stopped because he obviously wanted to cross," he said. "We made eye contact and I beckoned him across. He gave me a big wide smile which warmed me and he came across the road."

But when he was a step or two away from the centre white line Mr Edwards saw Butler's car coming 'out of nowhere'.

"Mr Simmons had kept looking at me and smiling because I had allowed him to cross. By this time it was too late," he said.

"I had my kids in the car and all three of us said 'oh gosh' as the car came up and hit him.

"The wing mirror flipped him up and he came down with an incredible force. I thought at that time he was gone. He landed right in the middle of the road."

Cross-examined by defence counsel Neil Hinton, Mr Edwards agreed Mr Simmons had been wearing dark clothing and the road was wet and the lights were glistening. He said Butler's car was not going fast - about 20mph - but it 'just suddenly appeared'.

In a statement Butler, who was living at Silverdale, Salway Ash at the time of the accident, told police she had simply not seen Mr Simmons at all. She had not been distracted.

"I don't know why it happened - it was an accident," she said.

After her conviction for careless driving Butler, unemployed and in receipt of disability benefits, pleaded guilty to failing to notify the DVLC that she had been prescribed methadone by her doctor. No separate penalty was im-posed for this, or for a number of other minor motoring offences that she admitted.