Truck on wrong side in A1 death
A 57-year-old truck driver was warned by other motorists he was going the wrong way on a major road before smashing head-on into a car near Dunbar and killing a veterinary nursing student.
A tipper truck driver killed a talented student in a head-on collision after driving along a dual carriageway the wrong way despite other motorists attempts to warn him of the danger.
Michael Friel, 57, kept driving on the A1 Edinburgh to Newcastle trunk road as other drivers swerved to avoid him and flashed their headlights before smashing into Meghan Ambrozevich-blair’s car.
Miss Ambrozevich-blair, 26, sustained multiple injuries in the crash and died despite efforts to save her, including aid given by an off-duty doctor and her fiance who was walking his dog in a field near the accident scene and went to help.
Friel admitted causing her death by driving dangerously on 9 December in 2016 on the road between the Spott and Thistly Cross roundabouts, near Dunbar, in East Lothian, after performing a three-point turn and driving the wrong way in the face of oncoming traffic.
The high court in edinburgh heard that Miss Ambrozevich-blair, who was a keen animal lover, was posthumously awarded a first class honours degree in veterinary nursing from Edinburgh Napier University.
Advocate depute Alex Prenctice QC said Miss Ambrozevi-
ch-blair had left her home at Haines Drive, in Dunbar, on the dark morning to drive to her part-time job at Vets For Pets at Straiton retail park, at Loanhead, before the collision.
Friel had also set off for work from his sister’s home in Dunbar in the Ford Transit tipper heading for Little Spott, in East Lothian.
Mr Prentice said: “He joined the A1 southbound and had almost reached Torness nuclear power station before realising he was travelling in the wrong direction for his destination.”
He stopped and called his brother, for whom he worked, and was told to return north to the Spott roundabout and wait for him at a supermarket.
Friel missed the turn at the roundabout and continued north on the A1 before realising that he had made a mistake and pulled up and began making a three-point turn.
One motorist negotiated a way past him and saw in his rearview mirror that the tipper was now being driven down the northbound carriageway in the wrong direction.
Mr Prentice said: “The accused drove in a southerly direction in the northbound carriageway. He encountered a number of vehicles travelling north at speed.
“The drivers in five vehicles had to take immediate action by swerving and flashing headlights to avoid colliding with the accused’s vehicle. Two other drivers saw the accused’s vehicle and flashed headlights to alert him to their presence.”