A grieving Lochaber family have demanded a review of the way police investigated a crash which killed a champion cyclist.
Jason MacIntyre’s relatives also want the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to investigate whether Highland Council breached regulations on driving at work.
Mr MacIntyre died on January 15 after being struck by a local authority pick-up truck on the outskirts of Fort William while he was on a training run.
The driver, Robert McTaggart, 36, has since been fined £500 and banned from the road for six months after admitting driving carelessly when he pulled across the path of the father-of-two, a Commonwealth and Olympic games hopeful.
Since then, Mr MacIntyre’s family has lodged complaints with Ian Latimer, Northern Constabulary’s chief constable, Highland Council and the Health and Safety Executive, and are also calling for a fatal accident inquiry to be held.
Police have confirmed a complaint has been made and say it is being investigated.
The family have queried whether a mobile phone had been in use at the time of the accident, and were allegedly advised that investigating officers “did not think it was relevant”.
Mr MacIntyre’s father, David, said yesterday that procedures for investigating road deaths in Scotland had not been revised for a number of years despite being updated last year to provide a higher investigative standard in England and Wales.
The English and Welsh protocols indicate that investigating officers should consider whether a mobile phone was in use by the driver at the time of the incident.
“The manual for Scotland contains no direct reference to the use of a mobile phone by the offending driver,” said Mr MacIntyre.
He said: “When can victims of road traffic crime in Scotland expect to have the deaths of their loved ones investigated to the same standard as those in England and Wales?”
A week after McTaggart’s court appearance, a new offence of causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving was introduced, which could apply to cases where drivers have killed someone while using a mobile phone, eating or drinking at the wheel.
Mr MacIntyre, of Glenloy Terrace, Caol, said: “We therefore have a new law in place throughout Scotland, England Wales with the anomaly that the offence is likely to be investigated to a lower standard in Scotland.
“Families in Scotland will still be robbed of justice until this anomaly is removed.”
He says the law change has taken decades of campaigning and that “it is likely that hundreds of families have been denied any sense of justice while the dithering continued”.
The family initially demanded that death by dangerous driving charges be brought against McTaggart, 36, of 36 Alma Road, Fort William, but their pleas were rejected after a Crown Office review by two counsel.
Mr MacIntyre also revealed that he had asked the Health and Safety Executive to investigate whether Highland Council had breached driving at work regulations.
The council has declined to comment on the issue.
A Health and Safety Executive spokesman confirmed relatives had been in touch with the agency asking if they would investigate matters further.
McTaggart could not be contacted for comment.
