Husband has 'no memory' of M1 crash which killed wife
A man accused of murdering his wife by deliberately driving their car into a motorway embankment has claimed he has no memory of the crash.
Ian Walters, 51, is accused of driving off the M1, at about 80mph, in Leicestershire, to kill his wife Tracy.
The Swindon couple had been returning home from a "make-or-break" holiday, Leicester Crown Court heard.
Mr Walters, who also suffered serious injuries, denies he intentionally tried to kill his wife.
The former driving test examiner, told Leicester Crown Court his last recollection was seeing a sign for the A1 in Richmond, North Yorkshire, shortly after visiting a petrol station at about 10:00, two hours before the crash in March 2014.
Answering questions from defence barrister Christopher Millington, Mr Walters said his next memory was waking up in hospital several days later.
He said he was "devastated" when informed of his 48-year-old wife's death.
"Up until the point where we started to go to the left [off the M1] everything seems to be perfectly normal," said the father-of-two.
"I can't explain how it happened. I have no memory of it and I can't come up with any explanation for it.
"I can't think of a reasonable reason why."
Prosecutors allege Mr Walters crashed his Mitsubishi pick-up truck after his wife demanded a divorce following a string of arguments.
Mr Walters denied suggestions from prosecutor Charles Miskin, he had adopted a "default position" of claiming not to remember.
Rejecting allegations their relationship had become "toxic", Mr Walters said: "Generally it was a happy relationship punctuated with too many incidents of there being problems."
Jurors previously heard Mrs Walters had referred to her marriage as a "farce" in a text message and complained her husband made unreasonable sexual demands.
They also heard Mr Walters had difficulty sleeping and had fallen asleep on two previous occasions while driving but nobody had been hurt.
The trial continues.