Jailed, driver whose split second error killed three of his friends

A DRIVER who caused the deaths of three people by pulling out in front of a bus has been jailed for 11 months.

Marin Rachev blamed a ‘momentary mistake’ for the accident in March last year in which three of his friends died.

His lawyer claimed the 35-year-old’s nightmares in which he relives the crash amounted to a ‘life sentence’.

But Rachev, pictured, was jailed at the High Court in Livingston yesterday and banned from driving for three years.

The court earlier heard how backseat passengers Zaharina Hristova, her husband Silyan Stefanov and Dimitar Georgiev, 32, died in the collision at a junction on the A90 Aberdeen to Dundee road.

None of the backseat passengers was wearing a seatbelt. Miss Hristova, 37, and Mr Stefanov, 42, were catapulted out of the car into the path of another vehicle.

Rachev’s sister-inlaw, Ivanka Dobreva, who was married to Mr Georgiev, was badly injured in the crash but survived.

Bulgarian national Rachev was convicted at the High Court in Aberdeen earlier this year of causing death by careless driving.

He was originally charged with causing death by dangerous driving but found guilty of the lesser charge after trial.

Frances Connor, defending, said Rachev thought he had sufficient time to get to the central reservation before the bus reached his red Renault Megane.

Miss Connor told the court: ‘It’s clear he misjudged the speed at which the bus was travelling.

‘He is unable to step back from the nightmares and the horror to have any degree of partiality about what happened.’

She highlighted that Rachev had served the equivalent of a 13-month prison sentence on remand last year and had been returned to custody following the jury’s verdict on February 3.

Passing sentence, judge Lord Kinclaven told him: ‘I require to mark the seriousness of your offending. There’s no alternative, in my view, to a custodial sentence.’