A TEENAGER charged with dangerous driving has learned the hard way about the perils of the road, a court was told.

Magistrates heard that after he had been involved in an alleged race with another motorist, Clitheroe teenager Philip Walmsley had been a passenger involved in a crash.

His girlfriend's spine had been snapped when the car they were travelling in crashed on the road between Chatburn and Grindleton in January, and Walmsley had suffered serious injuries which could still result in him having a leg amputated below the knee.

"If ever a reminder was needed about driving and the consequences of bad driving then this young man has received it," said Mr Church-Taylor. "He appears on crutches six months after the crash and he still faces the prospect of amputation from the knee down. His girlfriend had her spine snapped in the incident."

Mr Church-Taylor said the car was being driven at speed and both Walmsley and his girlfriend asked the driver to slow down.

"He told them to trust him, it would be all right, but clearly it wasn't," said Mr Church-Taylor. "He has learned the hard way what the consequences of dangerous driving can be."

Walmsley, now 20, of Edisford Bridge, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving in September.

He was fined £500 with £50 costs and disqualified from driving for 12 months and then until he passes an extended re-test. Charlotte Crane, prosecuting, said PC Derek Brownless was driving out of Clitheroe in Whalley Road at 10pm when he was overtaken by two Vauxhall Corsas driving bumper to bumper at more than 60 mph.

"The officer said they were driving "flat out" and after overtaking him they then passed a line of three cars, crossing double white lines as they approached the brow of a hill," said Miss Crane. "There was no way they could see if anything was coming in the opposite direction and if there had been there would have been nowhere for them to go to avoid a collision."

Shortly after the officer saw the two cars on the McDonald's car park and the drivers were arrested.

The other driver, Joe Chew, 20, of Pendle Street East, Sabden, had pleaded guilty to dangerous driving at an earlier hearing and had been ordered to do 120 hours community punishment and disqualified for 12 months and until an extended re-test was passed.