The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Van driver cleared over biker’s death
TRAGEDY: Zak Watson, who was from Crossgates, was killed in a collision in 2016
A van driver has been cleared of causing the death of biker Zak Watson by careless driving.
Mr Watson, 31, from Crossgates, was killed when his motorcycle was in collision with John Campbell’s Ford Transit van on a summer evening in 2016.
The tragedy happened just weeks after Mr Watson’s wedding and there was a huge turn-out of bikers at his funeral in Dunfermline.
Campbell, 35, of Lindsays Wynd, Oakley, was found not guilty of causing death by careless driving following a four-day trial at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.
He had been accused of overtaking when it was not safe to do so and causing a collision with Mr Watson’s bike.
The smash happened at around 7pm on July 14 2016 at Bogside as Campbell was driving his van to Alloa on a shopping trip accompanied by his wife and with five children in the back.
He told the court a Toyota in front had been driving slowly and braking randomly and the first chance he had to overtake was after a zig-zag bridge just before Bogside Farm.
“I saw the road was clear and took the opportunity. I checked my mirrors, the road was clear, I indicated and moved out,” he said.
The accused described hearing a “big bang” and then his wife screamed that it was a motorbike.
“It came from nowhere, honestly,” he went on. The driver then stopped his van and ran back to Mr Watson.
“I held his hand and apologised. I just said, ‘I’m sorry’. I felt bad about what had happened.”
Nurse Emma Cameron, 28, was driving the Toyota Aygo that the accused tried to overtake.
She told the court she looked in her rear mirror and saw “a bike in the air”.
“I got of my car and ran straight down to where Zak was lying. He was lying in the middle of the road. He just looked lifeless,” she told the court.
Ms Cameron said Mr Watson was not breathing and there was no pulse.
She spent 20 to 25 minutes trying in vain to resuscitate him using CPR.
“There was no change in his condition during that time,” she said.
Campbell was found guilty of driving without the proper licence as he had installed extra seating in the van.
He was fined £400 and his licence was endorsed with four penalty points.
Mr Watson was president of the Blue Angels motorcycle club.
He and his wife Michelle were married in April 2016.
Following his death, she wrote on her Facebook page: “I have lost my soulmate, the man I was to spend the rest of my life with.
“Words cannot describe the pain I feel in my heart right now.”
I held his hand and apologised. I just said, ‘I’m sorry’. JOHN CAMPBELL