An elderly driver left one pensioner dead and another seriously injured in Brodick after crashing on his way to an emergency doctor’s appointment, a court heard last week.
Roger Peacock veered across both sides of the road before bouncing off the kerb and mounting the pavement, hitting pedestrians Lindsay Proudfoot, 81, and Anne Cooper, who was killed.
A witness told Kilmarnock Sheriff Court how she was sitting in her living room when she heard a crash and saw a lamppost falling over and a car coming to rest in her front garden in Brodick.
‘I dialled 999 then somebody shouted that someone had been knocked down and somebody else said there was someone lying on the pavement. I fetched a blanket,’ she said.
Her husband told the court how he saw Mr Peacock slumped between the seats and pulled him clear of the airbags before switching off the ignition.
He added: ‘I asked him what had happened and he said he was on his way to the doctors and had an emergency appointment. He paused for a minute then said he thought he’d hit someone.’
Mr Peacock, 77, of Glen Avenue, Brodick, denies driving without due care and attention in the village’s Main Road last December.
He is accused of crossing onto the opposite carriageway, striking the kerb and causing a lorry to stop before veering back across the road, mounting the pavement and hitting Mr Proudfoot.
Mr Peacock is alleged to have then veered back across the road and struck a car, mounted the footpath again and knocked over Mrs Cooper before hitting a gate and posts.
A car passenger, who witnessed the accident, said he went to Mr Peacock’s Honda car. ‘I asked the driver if he was okay and he said something about he hadn’t been well and had been going to the doctor’s. His eyes were quite bloodshot.’
A minibus driver said he was heading out of Brodick towards the Auchrannie Hotel when he saw a car approaching with what appeared to be another car overtaking.
‘He was coming towards me, so I slowed down and stopped. The car disappeared then hit a lamppost which started falling into the road,’ he said.
Another witness said he had been driving a lorry when the Honda went past, narrowly missing him, after being on the wrong side of the road.
He added: ‘I looked in my mirrors and heard a thump, so I climbed out of my cab and there was somebody lying on the ground beside a hedge near the first tee of the golf course. Two people were attending the person on the ground.’
The trial was adjourned until November 27 due to ferry difficulties for witnesses.
