Owner driver charge: case not proven
Page 7
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
A VERDICT of not proven was returned on owner-driver James Forbes of Montrose on Friday last week after he had been accused of causing a four-car pile-up by pulling into the third lane of the M80, north of Glasgow.
Tachograph chart evidence and a failure to identify the driver in court helped get the verdict despite four prosecution witnesses being called. "Not proven" is peculiar to Scottish law, and means that there was not enough evidence to convict.
Mr Forbes was charged under Section 3 of the Road Traffic Act 1972 of driving without due care and attention and without consideration to other road users.
Prosecution witnesses said that he swerved into the third brie after coming up behind a Mini in the middle lane of the motorway. A car coming up in the third lane swerved to avoid the lorry and this caused the accident.
Another motorist, a chartered civil engineer, said he trailed the lorry for two miles before stopping it, and claimed that the driver admitted causing the accident. However, he could not identify the driver in court, Defending, Donald Duncan said Mr Forbes had reported the incident to the police, as a prudent and careful driver would do.
There were many lorries on the road like Mr Forbes's, and there was a blind corner where the vehicle could have been confused with another.
No one had taken the registration number of the lorry at the place of the accident.
Falkirk Sheriff Albert Sheehan said he thought Mr Forbes was' guilty, but there was reasonable doubt that he had not been the driver.