Nwicker60
19-Aug-14, 17:20
No evidence of swerving to avoid cat crash inquiry told
A police crash investigator told a fatal accident inquiry at Wick that the driver of a car that veered off the road and collided with two holidaymakers killing one of them, did not react to the fact it was heading towards them.
Chris and Elaine Dunne from Glenfield, Leicester, had come off their bikes near a croft cottage at Auckengill, a few miles south of John O'Groats, on A99, to put on some rainwear when the tragedy which claimed Mrs Dunne’s life, occurred. The pair had been on a cycling holiday in Orkney to mark their first wedding anniversary and were heading home at the time the inquiry at Wick was told.
Constable Scot Lemmon said it would be fair to say that there had been no change in the vehicle’s speed or momentum as it suddenly veered to the right, and then travelled 95 metres along its wrong side of the road, mounting a verge and pavement and hitting the Dunnes before striking a wall and coming to rest in a field straddling a fence. Mrs Dunne was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident on September 21, 2011.
Mr Dunne, an electronics engineer, received multiple injuries but proved doctors wrong by fighting back to recovery and the use of his legs.
Constable Lemmon said that there was no evidence of Mrs Ross’s car having swerved suddenly to avoid a black cat she had claimed had crossed the road in front of her. He added it had not been possible to ascertain the speed of the Nissan Micra. Mrs Ross didn’t realise she had hit the cyclists killing one of them until police broke the news to her, two hours after the accident. The inquiry heard previously that she had been subject to brief blackout turns in recent years, one occurring a month before the tragedy.
Mrs Ross is due to give evidence to the inquiry on Thursday at a specially-convened sitting in her home village of Lybster.
A police crash investigator told a fatal accident inquiry at Wick that the driver of a car that veered off the road and collided with two holidaymakers killing one of them, did not react to the fact it was heading towards them.
Chris and Elaine Dunne from Glenfield, Leicester, had come off their bikes near a croft cottage at Auckengill, a few miles south of John O'Groats, on A99, to put on some rainwear when the tragedy which claimed Mrs Dunne’s life, occurred. The pair had been on a cycling holiday in Orkney to mark their first wedding anniversary and were heading home at the time the inquiry at Wick was told.
Constable Scot Lemmon said it would be fair to say that there had been no change in the vehicle’s speed or momentum as it suddenly veered to the right, and then travelled 95 metres along its wrong side of the road, mounting a verge and pavement and hitting the Dunnes before striking a wall and coming to rest in a field straddling a fence. Mrs Dunne was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident on September 21, 2011.
Mr Dunne, an electronics engineer, received multiple injuries but proved doctors wrong by fighting back to recovery and the use of his legs.
Constable Lemmon said that there was no evidence of Mrs Ross’s car having swerved suddenly to avoid a black cat she had claimed had crossed the road in front of her. He added it had not been possible to ascertain the speed of the Nissan Micra. Mrs Ross didn’t realise she had hit the cyclists killing one of them until police broke the news to her, two hours after the accident. The inquiry heard previously that she had been subject to brief blackout turns in recent years, one occurring a month before the tragedy.
Mrs Ross is due to give evidence to the inquiry on Thursday at a specially-convened sitting in her home village of Lybster.