Spared jail, motorist who killed 2 friends
Horror car crash on families’ return from holiday
A MAN who caused the death of his two friends in a horror crash as they returned home from holiday in Lanzarote has avoided jail.
Alexander McCabe was driving one car while his friends were in another when tragedy struck as they travelled from Newcastle Airport to Dundee.
The 30-year-old struck the rear of the Vauxhall Corsa being driven by his friend Marc Edwards, causing him to collide with a van at a junction near Edinburgh.
Mr Edwards, 26, and his 29-year-old partner Jenna Tindall died at the scene and the driver of the van and his passenger were injured in the crash in July last year.
McCabe, of Dundee, was yesterday ordered to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work, disqualified from driving for two and a half years and will have to resit the driving test.
Sentencing McCabe, Sheriff Michael O’Grady, QC, told him: ‘The consequences of this offence have been horrendous which will live with the families of the deceased, and you, for the rest of their lives.’
McCabe, he said, had not been affected by drink or drugs, had not deliberately driven in an outrageous or reckless fashion, nor courted obvious danger.
The sheriff added: ‘From what I have been told, you did not do anything or fail to do anything which would obviously leave you unfit to undertake this journey. The lapse which led to this outcome had been momentary.’
He added that McCabe’s expressions of remorse were genuine and that he would carry the guilt of the incident for the rest of his life.
Earlier this month McCabe pleaded guilty at Edinburgh Sheriff Court to causing the death by careless driving of Mr Edwards and Miss Tindall on July 18 last year, and to injuring Jonathan Walker and Keiron Wilcox.
Sentence had been deferred for reports.
The court had heard McCabe, his partner, Nicola Brown, and their seven-year old daughter had been away with their friends and their daughter, also aged seven.
The Corsa was in front of McCabe’s Mercedes as they approached the A68/A720 junction roundabout at Millerhill, to the south-east of Edinburgh, at 3am.
The Mercedes struck the rear of the Corsa, pushing it into the path of a van driven in the opposite direction by Mr Walker and carrying his passenger, Mr Wilcox.
Following the couple’s death, Miss Tindall’s parents, Lois and Frank Tindall, described the pair as ‘inseparable’.