A young ‘hot hatch’ driver who hit 145mph on a dual carriageway before a high-speed rural road crash in which a teenage passenger was catapulted out of the spinning car’s rear window has been warned he could go to prison.
Eoin Duncan’s high-performance Honda Civic Type R was packed with young friends during an hour-long blast along the A92 between Carnoustie and Ethiebeaton and on back roads north of the Angus town before disaster struck when he lost control on a bend in the March 2014 incident and careered into a tree.
With not enough seatbelts in the car, one 15-year-old in the rear of the black machine – capable of 0 to 60 mph in under 6.5 seconds and the 145mph top speed – was thrown through the rear screen, sustaining serious injuries.
Another passenger was also badly hurt.
A jury at Forfar Sheriff Court took less than half an hour to convict 22-year-old Duncan of driving dangerously and at excessive speed after also hearing evidence of how the Honda had become airborne at one point during the evening blast.
Injuries sustained by two of the occupants included a broken arm, fractured sinus, face, head and lung contusions and a scalp wound after Duncan, of Caesar Avenue in Carnoustie, rounded a bend, lost control and hit a kerb before crashing into the tree.
The trial had heard evidence from one passenger of a speed of 145mph being reached on the dual carriageway and Duncan himself had told a witness in the wake of the smash that he had been driving at speeds of up to 100mph and had “lost it.”
At the police station following the incident he said he had been accelerating “just about foot to the floor” in a car which the court also heard described as the accused’s “pride and joy.”
Depute fiscal Joanne Smith told the jury: “When he lost control of the car he didn’t just make a mistake, he wasn’t just caught out – it was entirely due to the manner of his driving.
“He was carrying more passengers than he had seatbelts,” added the fiscal, describing that as a risk Duncan “deliberately ignored”.
The trial was told of the vehicle bottoming out at the ‘Crombie dip’, then doing “air time” after going over a rise which jurors were told had to be hit at 110mph to become airborne.
The fiscal added: “He makes his car airborne with his foot to the floor and he then crashes the car. It was a high-impact crash.
“What we get is a clear impression of not a careful, measured driver but a car being driven dangerously at excessive speed,” said Mrs Smith.
Deferring sentence until next month for a criminal justice social work report, Sheriff Gregor Murray warned Duncan: “The jury have found you guilty of what I regard as a very serious charge, on what I regard as overwhelming evidence against you.
“You should be under no illusion that a custodial sentence is a possibility.”
Duncan has been banned from the road with immediate effect.