A motorist who passed a pensioner moments before she was fatally injured told a court he thinks about the incident every time he passes the accident site.
Murray Fender said he slowed and swerved slightly when he approached Pamela Cochrane as she crossed Glamis Road in Dundee.
Moments later, she was struck by a car driven by Muriel Charman and died in hospital shortly afterwards.
Evidence in the trial of Charman, accused of causing the death by careless driving of 78-year-old Ms Cochrane in November 2019, concluded at Dundee Sheriff Court on Wednesday.
Charman, of Glamis Gardens, Dundee, denies driving carelessly near the junction with Dalrymple Street and causing Ms Cochrane’s death by failing to observe and react to her being on the carriageway.
‘I hope that driver sees that lady’
Mr Fender said he passed Ms Cochrane, who had just left the Spar shop and was crossing the road just minutes after 5pm.
“She just continued to shuffle across the road,” he said.
“I thought she was going to the sheltered housing, just on her being an older woman.
“I’ve braked and changed down gears to let her cross the road.
“Just when I was taking off again, I initially thought ‘I hope that driver sees that lady’.
“It was only a matter of a few seconds. I heard the dull thud.
“I know it’s a bad junction. Maybe, subconsciously, I’m looking for pedestrians.
“Every time I go up that road, I think about it.”
Mr Fender had described the level of lighting at the time as being “shocking.”
However, David Duncan, a senior lighting engineer with Dundee City Council, explained investigations carried out after the crash showed the level of lighting was double the required average at the time.
The court previously heard the two sides in the trial had agreed Charman admitted knocking down Ms Cochrane and that she died some six hours later as a result of injuries sustained.
Charman, now 79, became visibly upset as the court was shown CCTV footage of her car striking Ms Cochrane as she tried to cross the road from the Spar shop.
PC Stewart Coupland told the court the brake lights on Charman’s car only came on “two and a half seconds” after she struck the pensioner on the road.
He said: “It would imply it was a reaction to the collision as opposed to reacting to something in front of them.
“She (the victim) can be seen quite clearly walking at a reasonable pace across the road and speeding up towards the end.”
The trial was shown the damage to the car, which included dents in the lower bumper and bonnet and a badly smashed windscreen.
There was no evidence of drink-driving or defects in Charman’s car.
Mr Coupland said: “Whilst referring to the collision, she told officers: ‘I didn’t see her. I can’t understand how I didn’t see her’.”
Trial ends
The trial, before Sheriff Richard McFarlane, ended and a verdict is due to be delivered next week.
Charman did not give evidence.
Her defence counsel Mark Stewart QC argued while the lighting may have met standards, it still was not effective.
He also argued that while a police drive-through shown earlier in the trial gave a fair view of what officers experienced, it did not represent his client’s circumstances.
“It doesn’t need to be said, it is a tragedy.
“Nothing that I can say will make those who are interested in this case feel any better.”
