A YOUNG Blairgowrie man may have caused the crash which claimed his life by driving on the wrong side of the road.
Scott McIntosh died following the collision between his work van and an articulated lorry on the A93 near the Spittal of Glenshee in July last year.
A fatal accident inquiry at Perth Sheriff Court heard that the 26-year-old tyrefitter had been on his way to a job.
He left the premises of McConechy’s Tyre and Exhaust Centre at around 12.15pm on July 6, intending to repair the tyre of a lorry stranded at the Glenshee Ski Centre car park.
Mr McIntosh was just minutes away from his destination when he struck a southbound heavy goods vehicle.
As a result of the smash, he sustained serious head injuries and, after being cut from the Iveco van, he was airlifted to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.
Sadly, Mr McIntosh a former captain of Balmoral United Amateur Football Club was pronounced dead at 4.32pm and a post mortem examination revealed he died from intracerebral and brain stem injuries, blunt force trauma, and as a result of a vehicular collision.
The full circumstances of the tragic accident were heard yesterday before Sheriff Fiona Tait.
Courier driver Bruen Lockett (39) had been driving behind Mr McIntosh in the minutes leading up to the crash.
He claimed that the younger man had been “tailgating” a silver car in front and was “in a hurry”, despite estimating his speed to be no more than 30mph. The silver car then pulled into a layby, allowing the pair of them to accelerate up to between 40 and 50mph.
Mr Lockett told the inquiry that he then became aware of a lorry coming round the corner.
“The next thing I saw was the white van in front of me have a head-on collision,” he said.
“The collision took place in the middle of the road he (McIntosh) was in the middle of the right hand side. I came to a stop at the point of impact and I hit the white van, as it had bounced off the lorry and come back towards me.”
He then alerted the emergency services.
The inquiry also heard from Alistair McGilvray, who had been driving the Volvo lorry involved in the collision.
The 62-year-old, who has over 40 years of experience driving HGVs, said: “The van came round the corner on the other side of the road, about two feet over the white line. I swerved my vehicle on to the grass verge and I was practically stopped when the van hit the front of my lorry.
“When I saw he was over the white line, I took it that he was going too fast I just saw him for a couple of seconds.”
PC Michael Douglas, a road crash investigator for Tayside Police, carried out a six-hour examination of the scene and reported his findings to the inquiry.
He described a “gouge” in the southbound carriageway, suggesting the main point of impact was “maybe a third of the way” over the white line.
Mr Douglas concluded that there were three main reasons why Mr McIntosh may have veered on to the wrong side of the road.
The first was that he may have been distracted; the second was that heavy rain could have caused flooding on the road, which the tyrefitter would have tried to avoid; and, finally, he suggested that the young man may have “got a fright” after seeing the lorry coming towards him.
Sheriff Tait will issue her findings in writing within the next four weeks.
sgray@thecourier.co.uk