Son sues after smuggler kills parents in horror road smash
Driver died at sea before case was heard in court
Agrieving son wants justice after a puppy smuggler killed his parents in a road crash.
Gennaro Coppolaro’s elderly parents Maria and Giovanni, were hit head on by a car driven by Sandy Hamilton in 2015. Hamilton was trying to overtake a lorry when he crashed into the car in Newhouse, Lanarkshire. He had no insurance.
Giovanni, 85, died in hospital and Maria, 83, passed away two weeks later. Gennaro, who was driving the family car at the time, sustained serious injuries.
Gennaro, from Surrey, is now suing Hamilton’s estate and the Motor Insurance Bureau in an action raised at the Court of Session. The MIB is an umbrella organisation paid for by insurance companies, which compensates victims of uninsured drivers.
Hamilton, 35, from Larkhall, South Lanarkshire, was due to stand trial for dangerous driving but he and his cousin Kevin Mckinlay, 46, drowned in a speedboat accident off the Galloway coast last year.
He had denied the charge at a court appearance and another of driving without insurance.
He and Mckinlay were suspected of involvement in the illegal puppy trade, bringing thousands of designer puppies from Ireland to Scotland.
IT boss Gennaro, 57, revealed he was off work for nine months as he struggled to cope.
“Losing my parents in such a dreadful way has caused me enormous distress,” he said.
An inquest heard Hamilton was responsible for the couple’s deaths.
A report by the Procurator Fiscal said: “The standard of driving demonstrated by the accused has fallen well below the standard expected of a competent driver.”
A MIB spokeswoman said: “Generally, if a member of the public is involved in a collision with an uninsured or ‘hit and run’ driver then they are entitled to make a claim to MIB.
“It’s a legal formality for a claimant to start court proceedings.”
Losing my parents caused me enormous distress