A man hit by a car in a horror crash that killed his wife and father-in-law feared he would also die, a court has heard.

Nitesh Bissendary was allegedly under the influence of cocaine when his black Alfa Romeo mounted the pavement in Leopold Street, Ramsgate, killing Noga Sella and her 81-year-old dad Yoram Hirshfeld.

Yesterday Canterbury Crown Court was told Bissendary fled the scene, before returning to his vehicle with his parents and climbing back in to retrieve his drugs - while the mum-of-two was still trapped underneath.

But today, jurors heard Omer Sella, Noga's husband, describe the moment he was knocked down, before realising his other half was dead.

“I felt an immense amount of force hitting me - like a wardrobe or a piece of furniture being thrust against me,” he told detectives in an interview

“I’m not sure if I closed my eyes or lost vision."

Mr Sella, who was left with a lacerated spleen, said he was thrown into the air, before thinking: “Any moment now I will lose consciousness or die, but I didn’t - I was still awake."

The 40-year-old also said he noticed his wife motionless underneath the car, which had become lodged against a bench.

“I recognised her dress first, I started calling ‘my wife is under the car, my wife is under the car’ and I saw my son was limping,” he recalled.

“It felt empty. I thought, ‘Where is the rest of us? Where is the rest of the group?'"

The couple's five-year-old daughter also sustained a life-threatening head injury during the incident.

Mr Sella told how he was unable to find the little girl’s pulse, while his injured son asked: “Is this real? Is this real life?”

The court heard emergency crews descended on the scene and lifted up the car to access Noga.

Dressed in a dark suit, Bissendary could be seen leaning forwards with his head down as the evidence was read.

The tragedy unfolded outside a multi-storey car park at about 9.30pm on August 10, when the family - who were visiting from Cambridge - were returning to their hotel after a meal.

Jurors gasped in court when CCTV showed the moment Bissendary’s black Alfa Romeo mounted the pavement and crashed into the family from behind in Leopold Street.

Footage also showed the victims hugging and waving off two family members in Queen Street following the meal, just minutes before they were killed.

Jurors also saw CCTV footage of Bissendary fleeing the scene on foot and contacting his father by phone in Cliff Street, as the emergency services worked on the victims nearby.

Eyewitnesses described hearing “crunching noises and screaming”, prosecutor Nina Ellin explained on Monday, which prompted people to rush to the scene.

Emergency services then discovered Mrs Sella's body underneath the abandoned car. She was pronounced dead at the scene, having suffered multiple injuries and features of “traumatic asphyxia”.

Mr Hirshfeld suffered a cardiac arrest inside an ambulance and was pronounced dead at 11.40pm.

Police found no defect with the car that could have contributed to the crash, prosecutors said yesterday.

But a subsequent investigation revealed fluid leaked from inside the mechanism, which Bissendary had been aware of for about six months, the court heard.

Bissendary, of Highlands Glade in Manston, previously pleaded guilty to two counts of causing death by careless driving, but denies more serious charges of causing death by dangerous driving.

He also denies two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

However, he has admitted assault occasioning actual bodily harm, failing to provide a sample for analysis and possession with intent to supply cocaine, a Class A drug.

Bissendary argues he crashed following a “momentary lapse in concentration to resolve a clutch issue”, Suriner Singh Gohlan, defending, previously told the court.

In a police interview, Bissendary told officers he “didn’t intentionally drive into people - the car just veered to the left”.

He claimed there was an issue with a wheel, before making no comment to further questions.

The trial continues.