A former footballer lit a cigarette then “took off” as a man he had just driven into on a zebra crossing lay mortally injured.
Craig Smart – one-time centre forward with Montrose FC – was driving his employers’ Ford Transit van, when he collided with Army veteran Dave McArthur on the crossing in Cardenden.
Mr McArthur, a 43-year-old father-of-two, who served the community by helping people with addictions, was using the crossing to go to a Tesco Express on Station Road.
He was thrown nearly 10 metres, landing on the pavement with such a severe head injury, he died in hospital two days later.
An eye witness described Smart’s van doing “excessive speed” – though police estimated 20 to 27mph – before “a loud bang”.
Passers-by and Tesco staff called the emergency services and rushed to the aid of Mr McArthur.
Smart got out and phoned his girlfriend, saying: “I’ve hit someone”.
A female voice replied, “Don’t run”, but after just eight-and-a-half minutes, without waiting for the emergency services, Smart got back in his van and “took off”, abandoning it nearly four miles away in Kirkcaldy, the High Court in Stirling was told.
Prison ‘uppermost’ in judge’s mind
After a four-day trial, a jury found Smart, 44, guilty of causing Mr McArthur’s death by careless driving.
The prosecution had sought a conviction for causing his death by dangerous driving but after deliberating for nearly an hour the jury opted to convict of the less serious charge.
A charge being unfit to drive through drink or drugs at the time of the accident was withdrawn by the prosecution.
However, Smart was found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice by leaving the scene and turning off his phone in a bid to prevent arrest and assessment of his capability to drive.
Judge Lord Scott deferred sentence until March 29 at the High Court in Aberdeen for background reports, and disqualified Smart, of East Wemyss, from driving with immediate effect.
He continued bail but warned Smart: “The charges are still serious.
“At the moment a custodial sentence is uppermost in my mind.”
Smart’s counsel, Ronnie Renucci KC, reserved mitigation.
Driver was ‘too calm’
During the trial, former care worker Agnes Smith, 63, who had stopped and brought a blanket and cushion for Mr McArthur, said she came face-to-face with Smart.
She described him as “very calm… too calm”.
She said: “His eyes were big.
“It was as if he was on something but I didn’t smell drink.
“He lit up a cigarette, then he was away.”
Mrs Smith said Mr McArthur’s mother then came across the road and realised the man hit was her son.
Scaffolder Andrew Tullis, 41, said he put Mr McArthur in the recovery position and was using a t-shirt to staunch his bleeding when he heard the van leave.
He asked his brother, also at the scene, to follow it and get its number.
The incident occurred at 8.04pm on November 28 2019.
‘Worst decision of my life’
Father-of-three Smart, a floor layer, said the first time he became aware anyone was on the crossing was when he heard the collision.
Suggesting Mr McArthur might have “run” across the zebra, he said: “I think there’s no way he could have walked across the crossing and me not seen him.
“For the last three-and-a-half years I’ve gone through it in my head every day.
“He was there in an instant.”
He said he “appreciated” that driving off afterwards was “a terrible decision”.
He said, “It was the worst decision I have made in my life.”
He stayed the night with a friend rather than at his own home and handed himself in the next day – too late for officers to check if he had been under the influence at the time.
He insisted, in answer to questioning by prosecutor Derick Nelson, he had “no reason to lie low”.
Smart played for Montrose for two seasons from 2004, appearing 65 times and scoring 25 goals.
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