A West Way Taxi driver testified he was "pressured" by his passengers to speed up when he ran a red light and crashed into a police car in September 2005.

"They were disturbing me by shouting and screaming at me," driver Dereje Lakew, 25, who spoke through an interpreter at the defence's request, testified yesterday.

Lakew, a native of Ethiopia who moved to Ottawa in 2000 to start a family, testified in Amharic at his dangerous driving causing death and bodily harm trial.

On Wednesday, Sylvestre's roommate and the other passenger in the cab, Deanna Moncion, testified that Lakew had been driving as fast as 85 km/h along Heron Rd. before the fatal collision at Riverside Dr. Yesterday, Lakew refuted that claim.

Lakew said that while the car was stopped at a red light, he explained to the passengers that intersections in Ottawa are equipped with cameras and that taxis "must respect the law."

"Once I explained to them about the traffic law and red-light cameras, they started disturbing me more and more, shouting and screaming," he said. "They were teasing and laughing at my explanation."

Lakew admitted he was distracted, thinking about a convenient place to drop off the fares to put an end to the confrontation. He said he looked back at the passengers several times while approaching the fateful intersection.

"Some moments before we arrived at the red light, the agitation and arguments -- the intensity of the disturbance was so high -- I was agitated, so I didn't notice the red light until I was through the intersection," he testified.

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