Teen driver found not guilty of causing tragic crash that killed two best pals
The teenage driver [1]of a car that spun out of control and hit a lorry, killing his two best friends, has been found not guilty.
Charles Gray was cleared of causing the deaths of his friends, Jayden McConnell, 17, and Kyle Marshall, 19, by careless driving in the collision [2]on a known "greasy corner" on the A91 near Bannockburn Interchange - a huge roundabout linking the M9, M80 and other roads.
After a five-day trial, jurors took less than two and a half hours to find Gray, 19, not guilty in court today. Advertisement Advertisement
Advertisement Advertisement
Gray's family members and members of the families [3]of the deceased were silent on the public benches at Stirling Sheriff Court as the majority verdict was announced.
Sheriff Euan Gosney told Gray: "You are free to go."
Gray, then 17, had passed his test only the month before the tragedy, on St Patrick's Day last year.
The court heard his 2006 Vauxhall Corsa had just left Stirling [4]Services and went out of control on a wet road about 3.50pm, shortly after leaving the roundabout and joining the A91. Advertisement
Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement
It crossed the centre line and was struck side-on by a heavy tipper lorry coming the other way.
The impact caused "a significant intrusion" into the rear where Jayden and Kyle were sitting, before sending it careering down the side of the lorry next to a crash barrier where it came to a halt.
They died at the scene of multiple injuries.
Emergency services at the scene -Credit:UGC
Gray's then girlfriend, Lauryn Moir, now 19, in the front passenger seat, was not seriously hurt but Gray himself suffered life-changing consequences.
He was no longer breathing when an ambulance [5]crew - on their way to hospital with another patient - arrived on the scene by chance, immediately after the accident, and opened his airway and saved his life. Advertisement Advertisement
Advertisement Advertisement
He was airlifted and spent nearly two months in hospital with a ruptured spleen, spine damage and a traumatic frontal lobe brain injury which, he said, affects his life every day and has left him struggling to concentrate or control his emotions.
Often appearing to choke back tears, he told his counsel Tony Graham KC he remembered nothing of the accident or the journey leading up to it.
He said the first he knew about it was waking from an induced coma four weeks later, and learning he had been in a collision in his car with his girlfriend and two friends.
Two days later, his mother broke the news about Jayden and Kyle. Advertisement
Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement
He said: "She told me that the day I collided with the HGV my two best friends didn't make it at all."
Mr Graham asked: "How did you feel about that?"
Gray replied: "I was broken that they'd passed away - broken.
"I still feel broken to this day.
Nothing has changed. I feel, now, what I've gone through is nothing compared to what the families of the boys went through and are still going through to this day."
Asked about dashcam footage that showed the black Corsa apparently rotated clockwise on its axis and heading on the wrong side of the road towards of the oncoming tipper - the last few seconds of his friends' lives which the prosecution repeatedly played in court - Gray told his counsel: "Ever since I saw that footage being played I can't stop imagining it when I'm sleeping." Advertisement
Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement
During the trial, jurors heard it was a matter of agreement that an analyst who studied data from the Corsa's insurance company "black box" found Gray had been "the perfect driver" until the collision.
Two eyewitnesses said that Gray had been driving either "normally" or "not recklessly" about the same speed as other traffic [6]before losing control, and a police expert who carried out a post-accident examination of the car said it was "unknown" whether or not there could have been a contributing mechanical fault.
The court heard that police vehicle examiners had not carried out some 20 checks on the wreck that might have shed light on what happened, and had not been equipped with a code reader to analyse memory of the crashed vehicle's on-board diagnostics system, which could have revealed if a braking defect was implicated.
The court also heard that the police [7]had not tested the slipperiness, or co-efficient of friction, of the road surface where the loss of control had been said to occur.
Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement
Advertisement
The A91 exit was said to be a long-known "greasy corner".
Another driver gave evidence of starting to slide there only a few hours earlier.
Police accident investigator PC Yvonne Smith said she found no physical evidence - skids or gouges - to show exactly where the Corsa lost control.
Mr Graham asked: "Are you telling the jury that you have no knowledge from the physical evidence at what point it was out of driver control, and no knowledge of the co-efficient of friction at the point it was out of driver control?"
PC Smith replied: "That's correct."
Gray, of Bannockburn, an apprentice electrician, had denied causing the deaths of Jordan and Kyle, both from St Ninians, Stirling, by careless driving.