A jury has asked for more time to reach a verdict in the trial of a lorry driver accused of causing a nursery teacher’s death by dangerous driving.
John O’Donnell, 52, drove the HGV which killed 26-year-old Chloe Morrison as she walked along the pavement of the A82.
She was fatally struck on her back by a protruding offloader leg that flung the woman 35-metres along a pavement in front of the lorry which also ran over her leg.
Ms Morrison suffered multiple fractures at Kerrowdown, near Drumnadrochit, where she’d been out walking with her mum on October 25 2019.
O’Donnell of Crossover Road, Inverurie, has denied driving dangerously and failing to observe the outriggers were insecure.
Advocate depute David Dickson asked the jury on the sixth day of the trial to convict the HGV driver.
He told them that O’Donnell should have seen that the outrigger was unlocked and insecure on at least two occasions on his journey before the tragedy.
The prosecutor added that O’Donnell should also have seen it moving in his wing mirror.
Mr Dickson told the jury they had an option to convict on causing death by careless driving but he was seeking a conviction on the more serious charge.
But defence counsel Tony Graham QC argued that it was not obvious to his client that his lorry was in a dangerous state because he had not been trained to look for the yellow warning signs attached to the crane or what they meant.
‘Accidents do happen’
He added: “Accidents do happen. How often do we have to check our mirrors?”
He also asked the jury to accept that the colour yellow was not associated with danger and urged the jury to put sympathy and emotion aside and acquit his client, in a case that he said was “beyond tragic”.
The trial heard that O’Donnell had driven his lorry with a crane attached from Oldmeldrum to the north of Skye on October 24 2019.
He stayed overnight and his load of fibre cable ducts was taken off by another grab crane.
The 52-year-old admitted he had dropped stabilizing legs the following day although he was not trained to do so, before setting off on his return journey because of gales.
But he insisted he did not extend the outrigger beams.
CCTV evidence
However, CCTV showed the nearside outrigger’s yellow warning sign that it was unlocked when he filled up with diesel at a Broadford filling station.
He said he visually checked the lorry on a rest break in a lay-by near Invermoriston and didn’t see anything untoward.
The jury saw more CCTV which showed the outrigger moving as the lorry negotiated a tight bend coming out of Drumnadrochit.
Then a passenger in a car travelling in the opposite direction saw the outrigger swing in and out as it approached the collision scene.
This was around a minute before Ms Morrison was killed as the outrigger hit her back and propelled her 35 metres in front of the lorry. It then ran over her leg.
Jurors were sent home for the day after spending an afternoon considering the evidence presented to them during the trial at the High Court in Inverness.
They’ll continue deliberations tomorrow.
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