A DRUNK DRIVER killed a young Fife man then fled the scene, the High Court in Edinburgh has heard.
Andrew Russell (25), from Glenrothes, admitted causing the death of Stephen McCann (20), from Leslie, on January 21 by driving dangerously on the A911 Leslie Road and at excessive speed while under the influence of alcohol.
The court heard Mr McCann, who had been on a night out and was walking along the road to meet some friends, was hit by Russell’s car “at full speed” after which he was thrown onto the bonnet and over the roof.
Russell and his passenger, friend Alistair Dick, who was also drunk, then abandoned the scene without checking on Mr McCann.
The victim’s friends, Alana Thomson and Darren Normand, arrived at the scene of the fatality and recognised it was Mr McCann.
Advocate depute Martin Macari said: “Mr Normand ran to Mr McCann and tried to help him and was shouting on him to wake up.”
After the accident, unemployed Russell, who has previous convictions for drink-driving and disqualified driving, told an acquaintance he and a friend had been out “burning up the back roads” before the collision and after it they had decided to “leg it”.
Mr McCann was found to have sustained a number of injuries, including a fractured spine, torn aorta and severed leg.
Police traced Mr Dick, who owned the car that Russell was driving, and he told them: “Andrew Russell was driving the car cause I was drunk. I take it the boy is dead we hit him at some rate.”
Russell contacted a friend who drove to meet him and when he got in the man’s vehicle he said: “I’ve killed somebody.”
The court heard the death of Mr McCann had had “a significant impact” on his family, with his mother describing herself as “emotionally paralysed” by her loss.
Addressing Russell, Lord Turnbull said he “drove at an excessive speed, failed to keep an adequate lookout and drove while unfit through drink”.
“You abandoned the vehicle and Mr McCann where he lay without so much as a single check to his condition.”
Defence counsel Dale Hughes said his client had “no illusions” over his eventual fate in the case.
Russell will return for sentencing in the New Year.
cwilson@thecourier.co.uk