A lorry driver has been found guilty of driving dangerously before a crash on the A9 near Perth, which left four horses dead and his co-driver with multiple broken bones.
Justin Bower was driving a 7.5-tonne Mercedes lorry when it hit the back of a broken-down horse transporter at the top of Cairnie Braes on August 24 2021.
A nine-year-old stallion named Party Trick, said to be worth more than £1million, was among the animals killed.
Party Trick’s owner, Nicholas Gauntlett, told a trial at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court this week he climbed into the horse box after witnessing the horrific smash from the roadside.
Recounting it with emotion, he said: “I needed to be with them.
“I watched him die; I watched his eyes close.
“You might think it was only a horse, but it was my life”.
He had been on his way to the Blair Horse Trials in Highland Perthshire at the time.
Prison ‘uppermost in court’s consideration’
The trial heard Bower’s then passenger and co-driver, Ashley Vandervis, was left trapped after the smash and suffered lacerations to his head, two fractured vertebrae, four broken ribs, a broken left wrist and ankle which pierced the skin, and a broken right leg and ankle.
Bower, of Rhyl in Denbighshire, Wales, was found guilty by a unanimous jury of causing serious injury to Mr Vandervis by dangerous driving.
An element of the charge, which alleged Bower had been driving while holding and using a mobile phone and steering the vehicle with his elbows, was deleted by jurors.
Following the verdict, Sheriff Robert More told 48-year-old Bower: “That charge is of a severity which, I have to advise you, is such that the imposition of a sentence of imprisonment must not only be considered but must also be uppermost in the court’s consideration”.
Devastating collision described
Horse rider and coach Mr Gauntlett, 47, told the trial he was driving the horses north to the competition at Blair Atholl when an engine problem forced him to pull over to the left of the road “as far as he could” and activate his hazard lights.
He filled an 18-inch-high horse bucket with stones, tied a high visibility jacket to the handle and placed it about 100 yards along the road as a makeshift warning to oncoming motorists.
The court heard the horsebox was still partly protruding into the inside lane, a few miles south of Perth.
He stood on a grass verge for about 20 minutes calling breakdown services alongside his wife, children, two horse groomers and a female student to whom the three other horses belonged.
Bower’s lorry struck the improvised warning bucket and continued, before it swerved right at the last second and hit the back right of the horse box.
Witnesses described seeing the horse transporter being shunted along the road and turning onto its side.
Mr Gauntlett said Party Trick’s father had won Badminton horse trials and he valued his horse “in excess of £1 million”.
Motorist John Robertson, who was travelling behind the lorry at the time of the collision, went to check on the driver and saw the passenger “trapped in such a way that his feet were touching the back of the horse box”.
Mr Gauntlett’s wife, Amanda, 49, told the trial she had earlier seen Bower leaning over with his forearms resting on the steering wheel through the passenger side window of the passing lorry.
Asked by prosecutor Duncan MacKenzie if Bower was holding anything, she said: “It appeared to be a phone or device but I could not see clearly what make it was.
“He was looking down at the phone or device in his hands”.
She said she tried to wave and shout but this was not acknowledged.
Bower strongly denied using the phone and no other trial witnesses saw him holding or using one while driving.
Co-driver badly injured
Lorry passenger Mr Vandervis, 47, told the trial he had no memory of the collision and could not recall being in the lorry at all that day.
He said his first recollection was being in hospital in Dundee a week later.
He still suffers physical pain and his mental health has been affected.
The trial heard emergency services were called to the scene around 2.40pm and the road was shut for several hours.
Jurors were shown photographs of the damaged vehicles taken on the day, which was described by several trial witnesses as warm and clear.
Giving evidence, Bower said he was “one million percent” not using his phone while driving.
He said he was “distracted” by a car in the fast lane which had been trying to pass him for three or four minutes.
Bower said he had seen the back end of the horse transporter in the distance but believed it was still moving on the road, struggling to get up the hill.
He said when the car to his right moved on, he then indicated to overtake the horse transporter and Mr Vandervis shouted “move, move, move” but it was too late to brake and avoid the collision.
He said he did not see the improvised warning bucket on the road, people shouting or waving at the side, or any hazard lights on the horsebox.
Phone denials
Asked by defence lawyer Pauline Cullerton about the suggestion he was on his phone and driving with his arms leaning on the wheel, Bower said it was “impossible” because the steering wheel is positioned flat and he would have to be leaning over a lot.
He said he was holding the steering wheel at “ten to two” and his phone was in a bag.
Asked how he felt after the collision, Bower said: “Absolutely mortified”.
He said he is not currently working due to recovering from a leg operation and has not been back in a lorry since the crash.
The court heard he has one previous conviction for “driving with excess alcohol” from 2014 which resulted in a fine.
Sentencing was deferred until May 1 for a background report.
Bower has been banned from driving in the interim and his bail has been continued.
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