Death crash driver banned

He denied the load carried on the trailer of an articulated lorry was not secured and it caused the trailer to tip over and collide with Mr Muir’s car, killing him and injuring his wife. The Crown accepted a guilty plea to an alternative charge of using the lorry when the weight, position, or distribution of the load or the manner in which it was secured was such that it involved a danger of injury to any person. Mackin also pled guilty to driving with a defective trailer brake and tyre, but the court was told that this did not contribute to the accident, in which a 15-tonne press came off the lorry and struck Mr Muir’s car as the trailer tipped over.

Sheriff David Crow fined Mackin #1150 and banned him from driving for six months. Procurator-fiscal Frank Walkingshaw said that the load of more than 20 tonnes of machinery, including the hydraulic press, was secured by only four straps and Mackin had told police he normally carried nine or 10. An agent said Mackin had assembled the load and had been satisfied that it was secured satisfactorily.

He had checked it regularly. The sheriff said it was his opinion the load was inadequately secured. “I don’t take into account the outcome of the accident, but simply a failure to have a secure load. “However, it must be brought home to experienced lorry drivers that they have a very clear duty to themselves and other road users.”

The owners of the lorry and trailer, Mackin International Transport, of County Armagh, were fined #1500 on the brake and tyre charges.