The three victims of a fatal crash on the A90 were not wearing seatbelts, a trial heard yesterday.
Marin Rachev is accused of causing the death of three people by driving dangerously on March 12 last year.
It is alleged the 35-year-old pulled out on to the A90 Aberdeen to Dundee road from its junction with Drumlithie without giving way and into the path of a bus.
The High Court in Aberdeen has heard that when his red Renault Scenic was struck by the bus, two of his passengers were thrown on to the road and hit by another vehicle.
Rachev, of Sandilands Drive, Aberdeen, denies the charge.
Yesterday, advocate depute Murdoch MacTaggart showed the jury CCTV footage from the bus the moment the double-decker and Rachev’s car collided.
Three videos, from three separate cameras, showed the bus travelling along the A90 before smashing into the red car.
Jurors were then shown images of the internal and external damage to Rachev’s vehicle.
Mr MacTaggart put it to PC Andrew Ramsey, one of a team of collision investigators, that the car was “heavily damaged”.
Mr Ramsey said: “It has crushed the rear seats from the offside – squeezing them together.”
The court heard the crash investigation report found the three people who died in the crash were not wearing their seat belts.
Mr Ramsey added: “It is the collision investigators’ opinion that none of the deceased were wearing their seat belts at the time of the collision.
“Had they been wearing seat belts it is likely that all of them would have remained in the vehicle and, in doing so, may have increased their chances of survival, although may have been seriously injured.”
Mr Ramsey said the driver of the other car, which struck Silyan Stefanov subsequent to the initial collision, had “insufficient time” and “could do nothing to avoid colliding into him”.
The trial, before Lord Kinclaven, continues.
