Student fell asleep at wheel and killed motorist

A STUDENT fell asleep at the wheel of a car he was driving after a heavy night of partying and killed a man.

Alisdair Grant, 21, caused a head-on smash with a Suzuki 4x4 driven by conservationist Gerry Lewis, 54, near the East Ayrshire village of Waterside in March 2014.

Grant had recently served a one-year ban for drink driving at the time of the fatal crash.

He now faces a lengthy jailterm after pleading guilty to a charge of causing death by dangerous driving at the High Court in Glasgow.

Grant will be sentenced next month.

The court heard that the collision occurred on the A719 close to the Ayrshire village of Waterside. Grant, of Kilmarnock, was driving his brother’s Fiat Punto despite feeling the effects of socialising the previous evening.

Prosecutor Mark McGuire told the court: “Text messages recovered from his mobile phone sent that day indicate he had been partying heavily the night before.

“Around two hours before the collision, in response to someone asking if he was fit to drive, he replied he thought he would be soon.

“The texts made it clear that Grant was tired.”

Mr Lewis was meantime driving his 4x4 in the opposite direction. He was going with his wife Sarah to see his widowed mother in Glasgow. The hearing was told as the vehicles approached, Grant’s Fiat drifted “without warning” into the path of Mr Lewis’s car and did not attempt to brake.

Mr Lewis’s wife Sarah realised her husband was badly hurt and pleaded with people to assist him before medics arrived. He did not recover from serious chest and abdominal injuries.