Man Admits Killing Friend In Crash

14 May 2015, 12:38 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

A man has admitted tail-gating at high speed, causing the death of a friend.

At the High Court in Glasgow,  22 year old Allister Douglas from Bonnybridge admitted causing the death of Mark McMillan by driving dangerously and at excessive speed on the A803 Falkirk to Bonnybridge Road on November 17, 2013.

The court heard that Mr McMillan, 20, was the front seat passenger in the blue Renault Clio driven by Douglas.

Co-accused Aidan Kilty, 20, who was driving in front of Douglas admitted careless driving.

Judge Lord Turnbull fined Kilty £500 and disqualified him from driving for a year. He must sit another test before getting his
licence back again.

Advocate depute Paul Brown, prosecuting, said: "Both accused knew each other and had departed from the same house prior to the accident.

"The accused Douglas was following the vehicle which was being driven by Kilty.  Both vehicles were travelling at excessive speed and Douglas was following Kelty at an unsafe distance."

The court heard as the cars reached a bend in the road Kilty, who was driving a green Vauxhall Corsa,  momentarily lost control and straddled the white lines in the centre of the road.

Douglas who was extremely close lost control of his car and spun into the path of an oncoming Nissan Pixo driven by Karen Brown.

The nearside of Douglas' car took the full brunt of the impact and Mr McMillan, who was in the front passenger seat, died.

Miss Brown told crash investigators that she saw the accused cars coming towards her at speed.

She thought they were driving too fast and that Douglas' car was travelling too close to the one in front.

She said Kilty's car partially entered her lane before returning to its own lane. She was then immediately confronted by Douglas' vehicle and had no time to react and nowhere to go.


Douglas suffered a skull fracture, a punctured left lung, a fractured pelvis, a fracture of the lumbar region and had to have
operations to rebuild his pelvis. Miss Brown suffered cuts to her thighs from her seatbelt.


Mr McMillan suffered blunt force trauma injuries to his head and trunk and internal injuries to his chest and head.  Experts estimated that the maximum speed the bend could be taken without losing control was 72mph.


Lord Turnbull deferred sentence on Douglas until next month at the High Court in Edinburgh to allow for background reports to be carried out and continued his bail until then.