The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Court hears man drove ‘straight out’ in front of bus
TRIAL: Marin Rachev accused of dangerous driving, causing deaths of three passengers
A man accused of killing three people in a horrific crash drove “straight out” in front of a double-decker bus, a court has heard.
Marin Rachev is accused of driving dangerously on the A90 Aberdeen to Dundee road on March 12 last year, causing the deaths of three of his passengers.
He is charged with pulling on to the dual carriageway from its junction with the Drumlithie road without giving way.
As his car was struck by a bus, two of his passengers were thrown on to the road then struck by another vehicle.
Rachev, 35, of Sandilands Drive in Aberdeen, denies the charge and is on trial at the High Court in the city.
Yesterday, courier driver Stuart Kerr told the jury of 10 women and five men he saw Rachev’s red Renault as it travelled towards the dual carriageway.
He said: “It went straight out in front of the bus in a matter of seconds, or less.”
Defence solicitor Frances Connor suggested Rachev had paused to give way, but Mr Kerr replied he “wouldn’t agree” with her stance.
Niamh Cameron, a 20-year-old RGU student who had been driving through the area, said: “I was expecting it to stop and I began to think ‘oh no’.
“I thought it was going to hesitate but it kept going, in front of the bus, and giving it no time to stop.”
James Whyte, 71, driver of the Ford B-max which struck two of Rachev’s passengers, described hearing a “flat bump” and a “solid bang” as it happened.
This caused his car to roll and he “felt like it went on forever”, leaving him with whiplash and bad bruising and his wife with a broken collarbone.
Thomas Corrin, a first aid-trained student, came across the crash “about a minute” after it happened.
He put Rachev in the recovery position and told the court he said the phrases “phone, phone” and “boy, boy” to him while looking at his car.
Mr Corrin looked inside and found a phone with a GPS app running, and the body of a man who had been killed in the collision.
The trial, before Lord Kinclaven, continues.