A flooring firm worker accused of causing the death of a pedestrian on a zebra crossing left the scene of the fatality after only minutes, without waiting for an ambulance to arrive, a jury was told.
Craig Smart, 44, driving his firm’s white Transit van, collided with Army veteran David McArthur on the crossing outside a Tesco Express store in Cardenden, Fife.
He is accused of causing death by driving dangerously while unfit through drink or drugs on November 28 2019.
Agreed evidence
Jurors at High Court in Stirling heard Mr McArthur, 43, was walking on Station Road, Cardenden, when the collision happened.
He was thrown into the air and landed on the nearby pavement, suffering such a severe head injury he died in hospital two days later.
The jury was read a minute – agreed evidence – confirming the prosecution and defence agreed Smart had been driving the van, owned by his employer, Kirkton Flooring.
A fitted tracker showed it had been travelling at 20mph before the collision and the ignition was switched off post-accident at 8.04pm and switched back on again eight and a half minutes later.
Also according to the joint minute, Smart called his former partner, Alana Liddy, at 8.06pm, saying “I have hit someone” or “I think I have hit someone”.
Ms Liddy told him to stay for the ambulance but he hung up.
He called her back at 8.13pm and 8.17pm saying he was “being chased” and “someone was tooting his horn and flashing his lights trying to overtake him”.
After hanging up, he messaged Ms Liddy saying, “Phone my dad. I’m turning my phone off. C U when I get in.”
The relevant section of the joint minute ends, “However, he did not return home that night.”
According to the joint minute, after the accident, the van travelled on roads between Station Road, Cardenden and Blyth Gardens, Kirkcaldy, reaching a maximum speed of 51mph, and arriving at 8.19 pm.
Witness heard collision
Witness, Emma Thorington, 46, an analyst, was waiting for a bus nearby when she heard the collision, she told the trial.
“I heard a loud bang. All of a sudden I became aware of a man in the air.
“I knew something bad had happened.”
Miss Thorington agreed with prosecutor Derick Nelson, “it appeared the man had been thrown higher than the van”.
She said she spoke to Smart, who appeared pale and shocked and he said “He just stepped out” or “I didn’t see him”.
She said Mr McArthur appeared to be unconscious and someone else was giving first aid.
She said Smart then “appeared to have taken off and not returned”.
Denies all charges
Smart, of East Wemyss, denies causing father-of-two Mr McArthur’s death by driving dangerously, while unfit through drink or drugs, too fast on the approach to the zebra crossing, failing to maintain observations, and failing to give way to Mr McArthur on the crossing.
He also denies attempting to pervert the course of justice by failing to wait for the emergency services or provide his details to people at the scene, driving away, failing to stop when requested by a member of the public.
The charge continues with an allegation he turned off and disposed of his mobile phone to prevent detection, arrest and assessment of his capability to drive at the time of the collision.
The trial, before Lord Scott, continues on Tuesday and is expected to last four days.
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