Rachael Parr said Miss Gough, 19, had refused to be drawn into a race with fellow driver Craig Bergin, 20.

But she had been forced to steer to avoid him when he twice swerved his car towards her Renault Clio on Burdock Way, Halifax.

Miss Parr, who described Miss Gough's driving as "very steady" and never above the speed limit, said she had grabbed the steering wheel to try to right the vehicle when it headed towards the bridge edge.

They lost control of the blue car, hit a bollard, spun and collided with a crash barrier.

Miss Gough, of Brighouse, was killed instantly and Miss Parr spent a week in hospital with six broken ribs, a broken collar bone, a broken toe, a punctured lung and facial scars.

"If I had not grabbed the steering wheel we would both have gone over the drop and neither of us would have been here today. I did it to save both of our lives. I thought we were both going straight over the edge."

She said there was no doubt in her mind that Bergin, who denies causing death by dangerous driving, was to blame for Miss Gough's death.

That night Miss Gough had arranged to meet Bergin, who she had only met twice before, outside the Acapulco nightclub in Water-house Street and drive to Brighouse.

At traffic lights in Orange Street, Bergin's canary-yellow Vauxhall Tigra pulled up alongside Miss Gough.

Miss Parr, then 21, said: "Craig started to rev as if he wanted to race. He was holding his steering wheel and pulling his body forward like he was urging us to race."

She said Bergin sped off the minute the traffic lights turned to amber while Naomi waited for a green light and drove off normally.

Miss Parr cried as she told Bradford Crown Court that after the crash she remembered waking up in "a dark space."

"My friend was on top of me. I knew she had died."

The court also heard from two sisters who saw Bergin, of Shay Lane, Halifax, driving through the town centre less than an hour before the crash.

Gwen Garside and Carol Cawood claimed he was speeding and Mrs Garside said 'Have you seen that maniac?'"

• Proceeding

Click here for Monday's evidence