The jury in the trial of a man accused of causing the crash which killed a “cherished” teacher and mum-of-two has retired to consider its verdict.
Yvonne Lumdsen’s VW Polo was struck by a trailer on July 12 2019 while she was driving her husband and two daughters to New Deer, Aberdeenshire.
The 35-year-old teacher at Stuartfield School was returning with her family from a holiday in London when the collision happened on the A948 Auchnagatt to Ellon road.
All of last week, jurors heard the evidence in the case against Raymond Lamb, of Barryfarm in Maud.
He denies driving dangerously with a trailer that had a defective braking system.
And Lamb, 31, also pleaded not guilty to driving without insurance and with faulty lamps and broken reflectors.
The High Court in Aberdeen heard that Lamb’s Mitsubishi L200 truck was travelling in the opposite direction to the family when the trailer swung out into their path as they approached.
Mr Lumsden said after the crash Lamb “had his head in his hands as if to say ‘what have I done?'”.
When Mr Lumsden challenged Lamb on whether the trailer had been properly attached, Lamb replied that it had been on “correctly”.
The widower also told the court he saw the trailer and thought it looked “poorly maintained”.
Russell Moir from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency told the jury that his examination of the trailer found a number of defects.
Mr Moir said the trailer hadn’t been maintained for “months going into years” prior to the accident and he found corrosion on the braking system and its wheels.
“Everything was rusty. The overrun brakes were ineffective. I took from that that the trailer brakes were not working,” he said.
Lamb’s brother Mark – the owner of the truck and trailer – also gave evidence.
He said the trailer was in working order when he’d used it just weeks before the accident.
Travelling nearly 10mph over the speed limit
Pc William Wallace, a collision investigator and the most senior officer who attended the crash scene, said “collision investigators believe this collision was caused by the negligence of Raymond Lamb”.
He believed that the tragedy could have been avoided if Lamb has used a safety handle to secure the trailer to his truck.
Mr Wallace said that the safety handle had not been “engaged” by Lamb prior to setting off.
“If he had just pushed the handle down Mrs Lumsden would have got home and none of us would be here today,” Mr Wallace told the jury.
He also told the court that he “definitely attached” the breakaway cable – a cable designed as the failsafe to apply the trailer’s brakes – prior to his journey to Ellon.
His advocate, David Moggach, told the jury Lamb is “clear that the trailer was attached properly” and had been consistent about his account of that day throughout the trial.
Stating that it would “make no sense” for Lamb to tow a defective trailer, Mr Moggach pointed to earlier evidence from Mark Lamb that the trailer had been used just three weeks before the accident with no issues with the brakes detected.
After hearing legal direction from Judge Alistair Watson on Monday morning, the jury started deliberations.
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