A lorry driver who made a “deliberate decision” to make a blind turn across a road – killing a mother of four on her way home from work at Gleneagles Hotel – has been jailed.
Ian Moorhouse, 63, pulled out from a queue of traffic at nearly 25 miles an hour to make a right turn into a side road.
His view was blocked by a tractor and trailer and an oncoming silver VW Golf driven by Amanda Boag, was completely obscured.
Mrs Boag, 39, swerved desperately but was unable to avoid Moorhouse’s 16-tonne gas tanker.
She had “catastrophic” injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene by an emergency doctor.
In a tragic twist, it emerged the Gleneagles housekeeper was not actually rostered to work and was returning home when the accident happened.
‘Deliberate decision’
Dashcam footage showed Moorhouse – who was driving eastbound on the A811 road near Arprior, Stirlingshire – “looking relaxed”, with the radio on in the background, before making the fateful turn towards the village of Kippen, where he was due to make his penultimate delivery.
The indicators of his Grangemouth-based Flogas lorry could be heard clicking and Mrs Boag’s oncoming car could be seen for only a split second before a deafening collision sent it careering into the mouth of the sideroad and onto the left hand verge, debris “flying across the carriageway”.
Sheriff Simon Collins QC, who watched the footage on screens at Falkirk Sheriff Court, said he “had difficulty” with a defence submission the crash had been the result of “momentary inattention” by Moorhouse.
He said: “He didn’t seem as if he was distracted by something, or he looked down at something.
“He seemed incredibly focused, perfectly clear, and made the deliberate decision to cross the road when he couldn’t see what was coming.”
Sheriff’s sympathy for family
Jailing Moorhouse for 12 months and disqualifying him from driving for 46 months, the sheriff expressed his sympathy to Mrs Boag’s husband Stephen, and the couple’s four children, now aged 19, 17, 16 and 12.
He said: “No sentence which I could pass could begin to give comfort or redress to the family of the deceased.
“I am conscious of the crippling grief which they will have suffered and will continue to suffer.
“Due to the nature and circumstances of the offence, I am satisfied there is no proper alternative but to impose a custodial sentence.”
Moorhouse, whose counsel Louise Arrol had been arguing for a community disposal, looked shaken as sentence was pronounced.
Miss Arrol, advocate, said earlier her married client – 12 years an HGV driver – was “utterly devastated” by the effect on Mrs Boag’s family’s lives.
The court had heard after the accident Moorhouse told police: “I started to pull over and saw the car at the same time as the collision. I can’t remember anything else.”
Desperate attempt to avoid crash
Prosecutor Ian MacDonald said a careful driver making the manoeuvre would have slowed to create a gap in front of him and a “good sightline” of the road ahead.
Moorhouse failed to do so, meaning Mrs Boag’s car was “completely obscured”.
Mr MacDonald said: “The accused, who was travelling at around 24 miles an hour, without reducing his speed, stopping, or taking any apparent steps to ensure there were no oncoming vehicles, turned across the oncoming westbound carriageway.
“He was unable to see Mrs Boag’s oncoming vehicle and then failed to give way to it before entering the opposing carriageway.
“By the time he saw the car, he was midway across the opposing carriageway and it was too late for either him or Amanda Boag to avoid the inevitable.
“In the moments before the collision, Amanada Boag saw the gas tanker enter her lane and sought to avoid it by steering to the nearside but there was insufficient time for her to have done anything to avoid the collision.”
‘No criticism’ of victim
The court heard Mrs Boag had left her home in nearby Buchlyvie about 8.15am that day, February 25, 2020, to travel to work at the Gleneagles Hotel.
Collision investigators concluded there could be “no criticism at all” of the manner of her driving.
Moorhouse, of Clackmannan, Clackmannanshire, pled guilty to causing death by careless driving.
The court heard he had a previous conviction, from 2013, for using a mobile phone at the wheel.
