Two cars narrowly avoided a collision after a man opened the door of his vehicle while driving along a slip road on to the A12.

Geoffrey Cousins, 38, of Ipswich Road, Colchester, was fined £250 by the town's magistrates on Thursay after admitting inconsiderate driving.

Claire Cannon, prosecuting, told the court a woman was driving with her daughter along Colne Bank Avenue at about 11am on November 28, when she became aware of a Mercedes driving so close to her bumper she could not see its lights.

She said as the cars were travelling along the Avenue of Remembrance, Cousins braked in his Mercedes for no apparent reason.

At the Spring Lane roundabout, Miss Cannon said, both cars turned to go on to the A12 with the Mercedes behind the other car. The woman became aware of something hitting her car as the Mercedes drove past.

After overtaking, Cousins swerved in front of the other car, stopped and got out. The woman managed to avoid the car and Cousins again began to overtake her holding the door open as he pulled past.

The court heard that to try to avoid an accident the woman swerved on to the chevrons and into the path of a lorry. She just managed to get in front of the Mercedes in time to avoid an accident.

Paul Baker, mitigating, said Cousins had his wife and two young children in the car when the incident happened, and said he would have done nothing to risk their safety.

He said when Cousins approached the Westway roundabout, the woman in the other car made an abusive gesture with two fingers and her daughter repeated the action.

Mr Baker said Cousins had slowed down so he could speak to the other driver and see what the matter was as he felt he had done nothing wrong.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.