A policeman will appear in court today charged with causing death by careless driving.

Pedestrian Luke Bland, 20, was killed when off-duty traffic officer PC Stewart Chalmers' Lotus sports car hit him as he helped at the scene of an earlier minor crash, in which a Peugeot had left the road.

Mr Bland, of Lime Close, Uckfield, East Sussex, died at the scene of the incident on the A26 at Little Horsted, near Uckfield, just before 1.30am on February 14 last year.

Sussex Police officer Chalmers, 30, also faces an additional charge of having two defective tyres.

He is on bail and will appear for a plea and case management hearing at Maidstone Crown Court in Kent from 11.30am.