A man charged with killing a Lawrence woman in a 2002 head-on collision on U.S. Highway 40 testified Wednesday that he panicked while trying to pass cars up a hill in the oncoming lane of traffic.

Charley R. Davis, 20, said that when he started passing two cars and a semitrailer, he could see there were no cars coming and thought he could make it safely back into his lane. But the truck he was driving, a 1986 Chevrolet flatbed he’d borrowed from his father, slowed as it went into a no-passing zone and up a hill about a mile west of Lawrence.

Instead of hitting the brakes, he kept going.

“When I got to the top of the hill, I didn’t know what to do and froze,” he said. “I was hoping and praying that no one was going to be there.”

Instead, Davis collided head-on with a westbound van driven by 31-year-old Tisha Downing, who was killed in the Dec. 4, 2002, wreck. Her 6-week-old daughter, Francesca, also was in the vehicle but was not seriously injured.

Douglas County District Judge Robert Fairchild, who presided at Davis’ two-day bench trial, is expected to rule this morning on whether Davis is guilty of involuntary manslaughter. The central issue in the case is whether his actions should be considered “reckless,” a required element of proving the charge.

Assistant Dist. Atty. Dan Dunbar argued it was clearly reckless for Davis to drive more than 2,200 feet in a no-passing zone in a vehicle he wasn’t accustomed to driving.

“This was an accident waiting to happen,” Dunbar said.

But defense attorney Patrick Nichols argued that Davis started passing in a passing zone. He said that by the time Davis realized he was in a dangerous situation, he didn’t have any room to get back into his own lane.

Tisha Downing’s husband, Ron Downing, of Tonganoxie, declined comment Wednesday, saying he wanted to wait until the outcome of the trial before giving a statement.