Guilty, driver who left two dead in smash
A LORRY driver has admitted causing the deaths of a woman and an eight-year-old boy when he ploughed into the back of a car.
Donald Maguire was not paying proper attention when he rammed into the Ford Focus on the A92 near Kirkcaldy, Fife, last year.
Car driver Monika Lewandowska-Ritchie, 36, and eight-year-old passenger Bartlomiej Plachta both died.
Another eight-year-old boy, who was also in the back of the car, was severely injured.
At Dunfermline Sheriff Court yesterday Maguire, 56, admitted causing the two deaths by driving without due care and attention and failing to pay proper attention to the road on April 4 last year.
The court heard the accident happened near a roundabout.
The young victim, known as Bartek, from Poland, died at the scene of the crash and Monika Lewandowska-Ritchie, of Durham, later died in hospital.
A 36-year-old male passenger in the car was not injured.
Depute fiscal John Adams said Maguire told police he was driving back to Glenrothes when the accident occurred. He said the Ford Focus ‘stopped in front of me and put the flashers on’.
The lorry driver said there was also a car at the side of him and there was nothing he could do to avoid the collision.
However, Mr Adams said police investigations showed no evidence of the lorry braking. Tachograph data confirmed the lorry had been travelling at 50mph and had not slowed down before the collision. The injured boy required surgery on his left cheekbone and eye socket and may require further surgery.
Defence advocate Barry Smith expressed to the court his client’s ‘deep regret that this accident had such terrible and tragic consequences’.
Sheriff Craig McSherry called for reports and Maguire, of Glenrothes, Fife, will return to court to be sentenced on January 9. An interim driving ban was imposed.
Following the tragedy, the boy’s family said: ‘Bartek was a much loved and treasured son and brother. He touched the hearts of many and will be sadly missed by everyone who knew him.’
Mrs Lewandowska-Ritchie’s family said: ‘Monika was a loving wife, mother, sister and daughter who was much loved and will be sadly missed by all who knew and cared for her.’