‘We decided to move but it was too late’ son tells rally inquest

The son of a woman who was killed in a rally car accident has told an inquiry they were moving to a safer spot when the crash happened.

Dean Robson said they had decided to move as the spot they were standing in at the Snowman Rally near Inverness was “dangerous” because the cars were coming closer to them, but “unfortunately it was too late”.

Another witness at the inquiry told how he threw his daughter to safety only to turn to see his eight-year-old son under the crashed car.

Mr Robson said he saw a car coming down the track which looked like it was losing control before his mother was hit.

Joy Robson, 51, died of multiple injuries sustained at the event in February 2013.

A joint fatal accident inquiry is examining the circumstances surrounding her death and the deaths of three other motor sport fans at a separate event in Scotland – the Jim Clark Rally near Coldstream in the Scottish Borders – the following year.

Giving evidence to the inquiry at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, Mr Robson, 25, from Skye, said he and his mother were standing with others up the track from a hairpin bend.

“As the track was getting more ripped up, the cars were sliding a lot closer and closer to us. It was in that moment we started thinking, ‘This is actually quite dangerous’.”

He said they decided: “Let’s get out of here, something’s going to happen.”

Mr Robson added: “I had already started walking away from where my mother had got hit by the car.

“I could hear trees crunching, screams and shouts. I looked … and saw that my mother was on the floor. There was a tree hanging over her.”

Mr Robson told the inquiry others helped him lift the tree off his mother and said he felt it was a “long time” before paramedics arrived.

ILater, a 44-year-old father from Inverness, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the hearing: “I can recall seeing the roof of a car coming straight towards me and the children, straight down the middle of the trees.

“I threw my daughter into the gorse bushes to the left. By the time I turned back round the car had dropped.

“When I looked down I could see my son with his head and shoulders under the car.

“He was face down. shouted for help.

“People came and the car was lifted quite promptly. We managed to slide him out.”

The inquiry heard the boy was taken to Raigmore Hospital in Inverness and treated for an injury close to his left eye.

He returned home after two days and has since made a full recovery.

The hearing continues.