Elderly Woman On Trial After Fatal Fife Crash
An elderly woman's gone on trial accused of killing a man in a Fife crash.
A court that a head-on smash that killed a man was caused by an 83-year-old woman straddling the middle of the road as she approached a blind crest.
Jacquline Low-Mitchell is alleged to have killed Adam Maxwell by driving carelessly - crossing over the centre line on the A916 in rural north-east Fife and smashing head on into the 28-year-old's Vauxhall Nova.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard the pensioner was driving a Jeep Cherokee towing a horsebox that was laden with a tonne of grain.
Police Scotland crash investigator PC Ian Gemmell said an investigation discovered the horsebox's tyres were not up the correct pressure - and that would cause the steering of the vehicle to be "sluggish".
He said that the probe had determined that the "primary factor in the crash was Mrs Low-Mitchell having executed an overtake on the approach to a blind crest.
PC Gemmell said: "The main cause is the position of the vehicle on the opposing lane.
"It would appear that the overtake may have been completed in that she has passed the obstruction and was in the process of returning to her own side of the road.
"Mr Maxwell was close to the centre line but he is entitled to use the full width of the road available to his vehicle.
"Mr Maxwell's speedometer needle was frozen at 40mph."
PC Gemmell said both cars were in good mechanical condition aside from crash damage and the tyre pressures in the horsebox, which were far below the recommended level.
The officer added: "That can have an adverse effect in certain circumstances."
The court was earlier told that paramedics arrived on the scene 12 minutes after the 999 call was received from the cyclist Mrs Low-Mitchell had overtaken.
He was found unconscious, unresponsive with "obvious" fractures to his right arm and both legs.
Adam was airlifted to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee where medics found he had a brain injury they thought "unsurvivable".
He was placed on life support but was found to be brain dead the following morning and his ventilator was switched off.
Witness Sandra Tulloch, 40, earlier said she thought the driver of the Jeep was an "idiot" for overtaking her as she rode her bike near the crest of the hill.
Low-Mitchell confirmed to cops that she was driving the Jeep Cherokee towing the horsebox at the time of the crash.
When she was cautioned she said: "I just remember this little blue car coming very fast. There's a bit of a hill but he seemed to be going very fast in the middle of the road."
Low-Mitchell, 83, of Balcormo Farm, Fife, denies a charge of causing death by careless driving on indictment.
The crash occurred on the A916 near Craigrothie, Fife, on November 13 2013.
The trial, before Sheriff Alistair Carmichael and a jury of 11 men and four women, continues.