A coach driver wept as he told of the accident that claimed the life of a Perthshire nurse.
The silver Peugeot car driven by Julia Jarvis veered into the path of George McIntyre’s passenger-laden coach on the A9 on June 10 last year.
Mrs Jarvis (52) died almost instantly following the horrific collision, which happened at Dowally, near Dunkeld.
She had been a ”very dear colleague” to all at Crieff Hospital for more than 10 years.
Giving evidence at a fatal accident inquiry at Perth Sheriff Court on Monday, Mr McIntyre (62) struggled to contain his emotions and broke down as he recalled the moment of impact.
Sheriff Fiona Tait adjourned the FAI for around 10 minutes before the witness was able to continue.
The driver, who had been employed by National Holidays for six years, told the inquiry that there had been no warning of the accident and no possibility of avoiding the collision.
The court was told the road had been busy with traffic with many motorists heading for the Rockness Festival near Inverness as he drove a bus-load of tourists from Newcastle to the spa town of Strathpeffer in Ross-shire.
Mr McIntyre said: ”The first time I realised there was going to be a collision was when the car was about to hit the coach. There wasn’t time to do anything. There was nowhere to go and no way of avoiding it.”
Mr McIntyre was left trapped behind the wheel, with his badly injured foot jammed on to the brake pedal and one of his wrists shattered in two places.
He was airlifted to Ninewells Hospital, where he underwent five weeks of intensive treatment for his injuries.
Of the 39 passengers, nine were said to have sustained bumps and bruises.
PC Christopher Murray said that from his investigation of the crash scene there had been little warning of the impending collision, adding: ”I do not believe the driver of the coach would have had time to avoid the collision.”
Depute fiscal Carol Whyte told the court that all that was clear was that, for ”unknown reasons”, the car driven by Mrs Jarvis had veered into the northbound lane and into the bus driven by Mr McIntyre, causing her death and injuring him.
She asked Sheriff Tait to find that Mrs Jarvis, of Highlandman Station, Crieff, had died on the A9, close to the Dowally junction, on June 10 2011 at approximately 3.15pm and that the cause of her death had been multiple injuries as a result of blunt force injury caused by a vehicular collision.
A solicitor for travel firm Shearings, which operates National Holidays, echoed those comments adding only a request that the court find that Mr McIntyre had done everything he could in the circumstances and that nothing he ”did or did not do” had contributed in any way to Mrs Jarvis’s death.
The sheriff will issue her formal findings at a later date.