HIGH COURT IN INVERNESS: 'I have lost faith in myself' says tearful lorry driver accused of causing death of Highland nursery teacher
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
A lorry driver was in tears as he recalled the day a stabiliser escaped from its housing on his vehicle, striking a nursery teacher and killing her.
But 52-year-old John O'Donnell denied ever touching the operating mechanism and was at a loss to explain how one had come loose.
He is accused of causing the death of 26-year-old Chloe Morrison on the A82 just outside Drumnadrochit on October 25, 2019 by dangerous driving. She died from the injuries.
The charge claims he unlocked the offloader legs and failed to secure them before moving off from Kilmuir Cemetery on the Isle of Skye. It is alleged he then failed to see that they were insecure when he filled up at a petrol station in Broadford, causing the nearside leg to become fully extended and locked in position.
Ms Morrison was hit as she walked along a pavement at Kerrowdown just outside Drumnadrochit with her mother.
O'Donnell broke down when he described to defence counsel Tony Graham QC the events of that fateful day. He denied ever touching the locking mechanism of the outriggers, but admitted he had dropped the stabiliser legs after being asked to.
He had been dropping off ducts for fibre optic cabling but another grab vehicle had done the lifting, the trial was told.
O'Donnell said: "The legs going down are independent of the outriggers. It is different levers and one of the other boys there showed me how to do it. I wasn't allowed to touch the outriggers."
He said he couldn't have extended the outriggers in any case because the grab lorry had extended its stabilisers and there was no room.
"I was asked to put down the legs to steady my lorry as it was blowing a gale that day. I don't know if anyone else touched them," he told the jury at the High Court in Inverness.
Earlier in the trial before Lord Stuart, the court heard that there were yellow warning signs on the outriggers to show that they were unlocked and that one could be seen in O'Donnell's nearside wing mirror. He added he used his wing mirrors a lot on his way back to his Oldmeldrum base because the road was so narrow but mostly focused on what was ahead of him.
A tearful O'Donnell said he didn't know what the yellow signs meant but agreed with Mr Graham that if he had and had seen it in his mirror "then Chloe Morrison would still be here today," the lawyer said.
"I don't know how I missed it. I heard a noise and I stopped. I couldn't believe what happened. I couldn't understand why it [the outrigger] came out because no-one had it out. I think about it every day."
O'Donnell confirmed he had driven HGVs since he was 18, had no accidents and had a clean licence. But he said he no longer does, only operating machinery like excavators.
"I have lost faith in myself. I had to stop. I don't have anything left in me to drive HGVs," he concluded.
The trial, which is expected to end tomorrow, continues.
