Father mowed down by binge drink driver on island road
A DRUNK driver knocked down and killed a father of three as he walked to a friend’s house after an island dance. John Pottinger had been drinking all day before getting behind the wheel of his Volkswagen Golf.
The 21-year- old stalled the car eight times before an onlooker started the vehicle for him and drove it a short distance.
Pottinger then sped off with four teenage f riends i n the car and ploughed into George Armour, 39, who was walking on the verge of the road in Shetland.
Mr Armour – who had a partner, a nine-year- old son and two stepchildren – was thrown up and over the bonnet.
He was found face down, with fence wire over his head and shoulders. He died from severe head injuries.
At the High Court in Glasgow yesterday, Pottinger, of South Whiteness, Shetland, admitted causing death by dangerous driving.
The court heard he had been at a disco at the Burra Hall in Hamnavoe in June last year and was said to have been ‘pretty drunk’. He went outside with a friend around 11.30pm and drank a can of lager.
Prosecutor Paul Brown said: ‘The disco finished at around 1am and people made their way outside.
‘Amongst those leaving the disco was the now deceased Mr Armour. His party was invited to a friend’s house near the Burra Hall.
‘The accused was seen by a witness sitting in the driver’s seat of his vehicle, drinking and trying to start his car.’
After a series of stalls, Pottinger set off with the carload of friends, ‘smoke billowing’ and bouncing his car over speed bumps.
Two of his friends yelled at him to slow down as he approached the brow of a hill immediately before the collision.
Mr Brown said: ‘ The front- seat passenger said that the vehicle bumped up on the left-hand verge and he could see a man walking away from them.
‘The car then struck Mr Armour, who was thrown up and over the bonnet.
‘A pedestrian walking ahead of the vehicle heard the sound of a car travelling f ast, excessive music coming from the car and then a bang.
‘They did not hear any braking prior to the collision.’
Pottinger continued down an embankment and into a field and, despite shouts from his friends to stop, kept driving.
It was only when one of them pulled the handbrake that the car came to a halt.
Pottinger then drove off again after all four passengers got out of the car and ran back to Mr Armour, a fish farm worker from Brae.
Pottinger was later traced by police, with the help of his friends.
When officers approached him, he said: ‘Just tell me, is he dead?’
A breath test taken at 4am showed Pottinger was more than twice the drink-drive limit.
Under the new legislation, he would have been four times the drink-drive limit.
A post-mortem examination found that Mr Armour had suffered a head injury which involved a severe skull fracture and severing of the nerve connectors in his brain.
The head i njuries were not survivable.
In the opinion of the pathologists, Mr Armour died as a result of blunt force head and chest injuries from the collision.
Sentence on Pottinger was deferred until next month.
‘Just tell me, is he dead?’