Bin lorry driver pleads guilty to killing grandad
A BIN lorry driver was facing jail yesterday after an 80-year-old man was killed by his reversing truck.
Scott Hamilton failed to check all was clear behind him before reversing his Stirling Council recycling lorry to let another vehicle pass.
Yesterday, the 44-year-old driver admitted causing the pensioner’s death by careless driving after the Crown withdrew a more serious dangerous driving charge.
The High Court in Stirling heard how Hamilton had to manoeuvre to give space to an oncoming Audi car on a single track road at Sheriffmuir, by Dunblane, Perthshire.
He asked his co-worker, Lee McEwan, to check the nearside mirror – but neither of them noticed that retired teacher Peter Wills, who used his large electric wheelchair daily to watch wildlife and red kites near his home on Sheriffmuir, was behind them.
The 7.5-ton truck collided with a ‘thud’ with grandfather Mr Wills’s 4mph wheelchair. The impact broke his neck, damaged his spinal cord and shattered his ribs, stopping him breathing and leading to his death in minutes.
After pleading guilty to the careless driving charge, Hamilton, of Bonnybridge, Stirlingshire, was banned from the road immediately by Lord Ericht, who adjourned the case for sentencing on October 25. The offence carries a maximum penalty of five years’ imprisonment.
Advocate depute Jane Farquharson said the original charge, alleging Hamilton had been ‘provided’ with a trained reversing assistant but did not use him, made clear the basis on which the dangerous driving allegation had been made.
But as Mr McEwan gave evidence, she conceded his position was ‘less certain’. Mr McEwan, who was 18 at the time, said he was not detailed to be a reversing assistant or ‘banksman’ on Hamilton’s lorry, which he claimed was not required as it was smaller than the council’s normal recycling trucks. He said he was only on board to empty recycling boxes and was ‘just an apprentice’.
Miss Farquharson said Mr Wills was not wearing a lap belt on his wheelchair but this had made no difference to the outcome: ‘His life-ending injuries were sustained as a direct result of the impact with the rear of the refuse lorry as it reversed.’
Miss Farquharson said Hamilton had received ‘appropriate training’ and had signed off training docuas
‘We assumed there was nothing there’
ments confirming he was aware of the dangers of reversing, and what safety measures to take. ‘His plea of guilty acknowledges that he failed to implement them,’ she added.
During the trial, Mr McEwan recalled the incident: ‘Scott just says if I could see anything in my mirror and I said “no” and he put the motor into reverse. It was just a split-second thing. We assumed there was nothing there. We went back a few yards and then we heard the thud.’
Hamilton gave Mr Wills CPR until emergency services arrived.
The driver of the Audi, Iain Dick, 60, said he realised something serious had happened. He went round the back of the lorry and saw Mr Wills. Hamilton was crying and had said words to the effect: ‘I didn’t see him, I didn’t see him.’
Mr Wills, a skilled linguist, trained a teacher after working for M15 as a Russian interpreter. After meeting his American wife Virginia, known as Ginger, a Fulbright Scholar in Scotland doing postgraduate research, he went on to teach at Falkirk Grammar School, the Wallace High School in Stirling, and Stirling High School.
Mrs Wills, 80, said she bore Hamilton no ill will: ‘I don’t really care what happens to the driver – I certainly don’t want him to go to prison.
‘But the other day one of my children saw a bin lorry with a sign on the back saying “We always check before reversing”.
‘They thought that had gone on the backs of the lorries soon after Peter’s death. We’d like to think what happened to him has made people, and the council, more careful.’