Driver in M9 crash had not passed his test
Victim was using provisional licence
CRASH victim John Yuill was driving illegally with a provisional licence when he veered off the M9 with girlfriend Lamara Bell beside him.
The 28-year-old should have had a driver with a full licence in the passenger seat, and even then it was illegal for him to drive on the motorway.
Miss Bell, the only other passenger in the car, did not have a full or provisional driving licence. Mr Yuill died when his blue Renault Clio veered off the M9 near Bannockburn, Stirlingshire, and ploughed into a tree. Mother-of-two Miss Bell lay critically injured for 72 hours after officers failed to follow up a report of the crash.
She died in hospital a week after the collision and the case is now the subject of an independent investigation. Mr Yuill had driven with a provisional licence ‘for years’ and had planned to take a test this year, according to his father.
‘We accept he should have had his full licence but we don’t think it contributed to the accident,’ said Gordon Yuill, who added that his son ‘was a very safe driver’.
A police report yesterday revealed the crash was caused by human error and that the father- of-four should not have been driving when, at 4.30am, he left the campsite at Loch Earn near Crieff, Perthshire, where the couple had been camping with friends. A source close to the investigation said: ‘John only had a provisional licence, and Lamara did not have a driving licence at all. This means that John should not have been driving, it was illegal.
‘The report into the cause of the accident has been completed, and the outcome was that it was caused by human error.’
Gordon Yuill has claimed that a driver with a full driving licence went with the couple to Loch Earn, but he did not confirm who this was. He added: ‘We knew John did not have a full licence, but he has been driving for years.
‘He never sat his test, mostly because of financial reasons, but he was about to take it. He was a very safe driver. John could take a 23ft caravan and a 7ft van and turn it on a 10p. He has left kids behind that meant a lot to him – he has paid a hell of a price.’