Shelagh Robertson, 75, was driving home from shopping at Tesco when she swerved into the path of an oncoming lorry on the A10 at Waterbeach in Cambridgeshire on January 22 last year, forcing the lorry onto the pavement, Cambridge Crown Court heard . The van struck five-month-old Louis Thorold and his mother Rachael Thorold, killing him and throwing Mrs Thorold into the air, seriously injuring her. Another driver who witnessed the collision, Kaye Lewis, said in a statement read to the court that the van driver was “fighting the steering wheel but the van just kept going towards the pavement”. He said he remembered seeing the “absolute terror” on Mrs Thorold’s face when she saw the van before it was “thrown 15ft in the air and then landed”. “I saw the pram break into pieces and go under the van,” he added. Robertson, of Stables Yard, Waterbeach, denies causing the baby’s death by careless driving. James Leonard, defending, told the court it was “agreed by any reasonable objective test the manner in which Ms Robertson drove on the day of the accident was below the standard expected of a reasonable, competent driver”. “The issue in this case is whether Mrs. Robertson suffered from insanity as recognized by law,” he said. “The defense case is that Mrs. Robertson had undiagnosed atypical Alzheimer’s disease both before the accident and on the day, and that is what will lead to the conclusion that the insanity defense is made.” Image: Robertson arrives at Cambridge Crown Court Mark Bishop, the judge, told the jury of nine women and three men that for the insanity defense to succeed it must be established that Robertson was suffering from atypical Alzheimer’s disease at the time of the accident and that “as a result of that disease he experienced disordered thinking ». He said the disordered thinking could be either that as he was driving the car he “didn’t know what he was doing” or that he “didn’t know that what he was doing was wrong by the standards of reasonable people.” David Matthew, prosecuting, said Robertson had turned right and driven her Mazda 2 into the path of an oncoming Renault lorry traveling south along the A10 at the junction with Car Dyke Road. “The impact forced the truck onto the pavement,” he said. “Walking down the pavement towards the van was Rachael Thorold, pushing her five-month-old son Louis in a pram ahead. “The van ran over them.” Image: Chris and Rachael Thorold, parents of baby Louis, arrive in court Mr Matthew said the van was being driven by delivery driver Andrew Freestone, who he described as a “cautious and professional driver”. He said the incident was captured on dashcam footage and Mr Freestone was driving “properly, sensibly and within the speed limit”, which at the time was 50mph. Matthew said Freestone “tried to steer to his right” to avoid a collision. “He saw the pram, he heard bangs, he saw the woman with the pram go up in the air,” he said. He said of Robertson: “Obviously a competent and careful driver does not drive into the path of oncoming traffic that has the right of way without looking.” Matthew said a witness spoke to Robertson after the crash as he was sitting in the back of another car and that he told them, “I just didn’t see him coming.” Another witness described Robertson as “alert, agile” and “able to pass the Mazda and exit through the passenger door” after the crash. Lewis was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital, Mr Mathew said. PC Matthew Bill, of Cambridgeshire Police, said Mr Freestone had “less than half a second” to react when the car left a filter lane and crossed his path. The trial, which is expected to last less than a week, continues.