There was uproar in court today as a trucker who caused the death of a nursery teacher when she was struck by a metal beam protruding from his lorry was spared jail.
John O’Donnell was sentenced to 100 hours of unpaid work and banned from driving for 12 months.
The sentence came exactly three years and a day after the 2019 tragedy that killed 26-year-old Chloe Morrison on A82 on the western shore of Loch Ness.
O’Donnell, 53, failed to notice a fully extended stabiliser leg was protruding from the left-hand side of his vehicle, as he drove through Drumnadrochit.
It struck Chloe in the back, sweeping her to her death as she walked along the pavement with her mother.
Ms Morrison was propelled 115 feet and died from multiple fractures.
At the High Court in Stirling today, Chloe’s father Robert screamed “No, no, no”, at the top of his voice and “I’m so sorry, Chloe” when judge Lord Stuart said O’Donnell’s case “did not warrant a custodial sentence”.
Someone else on the public benches left the court by a back door, slamming it loudly.
Afterwards, Mr Morrison described the sentence as “a travesty of justice”.
O’Donnell, from Inverurie, was found guilty of causing Chloe’s death by careless driving after a six-day trial at the High Court in Inverness last month.
He had originally been charged with causing death by dangerous driving but was convicted by a jury of the lesser offence.
The court heard O’Donnell had driven his lorry from Oldmeldrum in Aberdeenshire to the north of Skye on 24 October 2019, where his load of cable ducts was taken off.
He stayed overnight and said that he had dropped his stabilising legs the following day because of gales, although he was not trained to do so. Later he set off on his return journey.
He insisted he did not extend or touch the controls of the outrigger beams – entirely separate from the stabilising legs.
But CCTV showed the nearside outrigger’s yellow warning band was indicating it was unlocked when he filled up with diesel on Skye.
Tearful evidence from lorry driver
Evidence showed the warning sign would have been visible in O’Donnell’s nearside mirror.
In evidence, a tearful O’Donnell said he did not know what the yellow sign meant but agreed if he had and had seen it in his mirror “Chloe Morrison would still be here today”.
He claimed he had visually checked the lorry during a rest break in Invermoriston, near Fort Augustus, and did not see anything untoward.
But he told the jury: “I have lost faith in myself. I don’t have anything left in me to drive HGVs.”
A passenger in a car travelling in the opposite direction saw the outrigger swing out seconds before the lorry reached the scene of the collision.
Defence counsel Tony Graham KC said O’Donnell understood “the moral responsibility he will take to his own grave over the destruction of the life of Chloe”.
But he said the court could never know how, when or where the outrigger came to be unlocked.
He added: “Death causes devastation to families, and leaves the bereaved in a state of desolation. When it occurs in circumstances in any way bringing culpability to someone else, it will also bring anger.”
Lord Stuart said how the outrigger became insecure was “unanswered”.
Unanswered questions
He said: “But for the act or omission by which the outriggers became insecure, Miss Morrison’s death would not have occurred.
“Had they not been made or left insecure, the accused would not have been left to drive a lorry that was, unbeknownst to him, actually lethal.”
He said it was also unanswered why the lorry, made in 2005, had not been serviced by loader-crane makers Palfinger or their agents over its entire life – and whether, had it been serviced, it would have been fitted with safety upgrades that might have warned O’Donnell about the insecure outrigger.
He said such safety upgrades – the latest completely disconnects the lorry’s drive if an outrigger is insecure – had been developed because of known incidents in which vehicles been hit by outriggers.
Lord Stuart said O’Donnell’s carelessness must have been his failure to spot the outrigger in his mirror at some point over a distance of just under a mile when it was known to have become fully extended.
But he said it could not be known whether this occurred over a minute before the collision or just seconds before.
The court heard it was industry practice at the time for drivers to drive lorries with cranes fitted, without having training in their use, provided they did not use the equipment.
‘Her memories will remain with us forever’
Lord Stuart told O’Donnell: “Against this background, whilst recognising the tragic outcome in this case, I consider that placed in its overall context, your culpability for the death of Miss Morrison is significantly less than it might otherwise have been.”
Leaving court, Chloe’s father Robert slammed the sentence.
And he said of O’Donnell: “He’s a b*****d”.
“We are not in a good place at the moment,” he said. “We need to gather our thoughts about what we feel is a travesty of justice against my darling Chloe.
“We are absolutely devastated. Chloe will always be our beautiful daughter, always in our hearts and memories.”
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