Wife tells how she watched husband die in car beside her
Partying student jailed for causing fatal car accident
A WIDOW has told of her horror at watching her husband die after their car was hit by a student who had been partying the night before and fell asleep at the wheel.
Sarah Lewis and husband Gerry were trapped in their Suzuki 4x4 in March 2014 when Alisdair Grant’s vehicle struck them head on after he had been out hours earlier.
Mrs Lewis, of Darvel, East Ayrshire, tried in vain to rouse her husband in between screaming for help, only to realise minutes later thathewasdead.
After Grant, 21, was jailed yesterday for three years for causing death by dangerous driving, Mrs Lewis said she sometimes felt as if she had also died following the crash, which also killed the couple’s much-loved dog Shadow.
She said: “Me and Gerry and Shadow were a little family and, having the two of them taken away at the same time, it absolutely wrenched my life apart.
“I was just distraught and for quite a long time I really felt like I wish I’d died too. I just kept thinking ‘it wasn’t meant to end like this’. We thought we were going to grow old together.”
Grant, who had served a ban for drink-driving months before the crash, was sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow after admitting killing Mr Lewis, a senior conservation officer with North Lanarkshire Council for 20 years.
The court heard text messages recovered from his phone indicated he had been partying the night before and was tired.
Judge Lord Boyd said the student, of Kilmarnock, had shown a “cavalier attitude” as he banned him again for four years.
Mr and Mrs Lewis, who were just about to celebrate their silver wedding anniversary, were travelling along the A719 on their way to visit Gerry’s mother when Grant swerved into their path.
Mrs Lewis, 54, who paid tribute to her “compassionate” and “mischievous” husband who loved hillwalking and wildlife, said there was a “huge bang” when the cars collided, then a feeling of “being shaken up”.
She said: “When we stopped, we were both trapped in the car. Gerry was just sitting, staring straight ahead. I was shaking his shoulder saying ‘are you okay?’ and he wouldn’t answer me.
“I was shouting ‘please somebody come and help my husband’, but after about four or five minutes I realised Gerry was dead.”
Mrs Lewis was cut from the car and taken to hospital. As she lay in hospital mourning her husband, she was told that Shadow, the rescue dog who had been with the couple for five years, had also died.
She said she struggled to cope for about six months before suffering a mental breakdown and being admitted to hospital with severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
“It was just horrible trying to live with it,” she said. “Any little thing would trigger memories of the crash – a noise or a smell.
“I also just kept thinking that there were so many points at which the outcome could have been different.
“If [Grant] hadn’t got his licence back in December. If he hadn’t been put back on the insurance. If he hadn’t been up partying all night. If he had fallen asleep 10 seconds earlier or 10 seconds later. There are so many points at which it could have been different.”
Mrs Lewis said she was relieved the court case was over, adding: “Gerry’s still gone, but there is definitely a feeling of overwhelming relief now.” THE Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are saluted by member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the country’s Yukon Territory.
The couple were visiting the MacBride Museum where they learned about the area’s history.
The stop was the latest leg of their official Canada trip with their children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte.
The couple earlier met a group from the Canadian Rangers and Junior Rangers at the city’s airport before attending a cultural event at the Yukon Arts event at Kwanlin Dunn.