HIGH COURT: Highland trial hears evidence from truck driver over death of nursery teacher Chloe Morrison
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A lorry driver had a minimum of 66 seconds to check his mirrors and see that a stabilizing outrigger leg had become extended over a footpath.
The heavy piece of metal struck 26 year old Inverness nursery teacher Chloe Morrison on the back, propelling her over 100 feet in front of the LGV which ran over her leg.
Ms Morrison, who was with her mother at the time, died from multiple fractures on the A82 just outside Drumnadrochit on October 25, 2019.
Driving the vehicle from Skye to his base in Oldmeldrum was 52-year-old John O'Donnell from Inverurie.
He accepts he was the driver at the time of the tragedy but denies driving dangerously by not checking his mirrors frequently and at excessive speed.
The trial had earlier been told that the insecure outrigger could have become dislodged, extended and locked while taking a sharp bend.
Police collision investigator David Housby told the trial at the High Court in Inverness there was a 90 degree bend 0.9 of a mile from the collision scene in Drumnadrochit.
He added that at a maximum speed of 49mph – the speed at which O'Donnell was driving – O'Donnell had a minimum of one minute 6.12 seconds to be able to see the extended outrigger in his nearside mirror.
Photographs of the outrigger leg stretching 1.3metres into the path were shown to the jury in an emotionally-charged courtroom with members of the family present, often prompting sobbing as they heard the evidence unfold,
The trial, which will go into next week, continues.
