Driver admits causing double deaths

Published on Thursday 18 June 2009 23:13

A VAN driver has admitted causing the deaths of a man and his four-year-old granddaughter who were travelling to the funeral of a relative killed in a crash.

Ian Shennan, 59, tried to overtake at the end of a stretch of dual carriageway on the A9 in the Highlands, and a car coming in the opposite direction had to swerve out of the way.

The car driver, Paul Anderson, 48, lost control and struck another vehicle.

His granddaughter, Samantha Jane Carr, was killed instantly, and he was flown by helicopter to hospital, but died a short time later.

They had been driving north from their home in England to go to the funeral of Mr Anderson's niece, Vicky Pickering, 27, of Gairloch, Wester Ross. She had died in a motorway crash two weeks earlier.

Mr Anderson's widow, Melanie Anderson, 46, who survived the accident with Samantha's sister, Emma Louise, three, attended the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday where Shennan, of Ashfield Drive, Elgin, pleaded guilty to causing the two deaths by dangerous driving. He will be sentenced later.

Mrs Anderson, of Colne, Lancashire, appealed for improvements to the A9. She said: "The government should put more money into the road and make it safe. They should widen the whole road and make it dual carriageway from start to finish.

"If we could possibly save somebody else's life, or another family having to go through the agony we have gone through for the last 12 months, that is what we want to do."

Mrs Anderson said it was "very upsetting" passing the scene of the crash.

He said: "You see other people going too fast and you want to say, 'This has happened to me… slow down.' We have lost too many people. We want to save lives now. Just slow down and think of other people."

The accident happened on the morning of 19 July last year at Crubenmore, Badenoch.

Shennan, who worked for Loomis Security, was delivering money to Edinburgh. His van was restricted to 63mph, and he began to overtake a van pulling a caravan and persisted after the end of a stretch of dual carriageway.

"Witnesses behind him could clearly see he was making little progress and expected him to slow down and pull back in," said the advocate depute, Alex Prentice, QC.

The security van twice struck the caravan it was trying to overtake. Mr Anderson's car, also pulling a caravan, was travelling north, which meant there were three vehicles abreast on the single carriageway road.

He swerved to avoid the security van, and his caravan struck the nearside verge and began to snake from side to side.

He lost control, crossed on to the wrong side of the road and overturned, hitting a car. The driver of that car was unhurt.

Mr Prentice said a crash scene investigator had concluded quite clearly that the blame for the accident lay with Shennan.

Mr Prentice said: "The investigator considers that Mr Shennan's persistence in attempting to overtake where it was clear that he was making no progress and had left the dual carriageway section half a kilometre behind, and in the face of oncoming traffic, is what caused the event."

Lord Brodie, who was told Shennan had no previous convictions and knew he faced a jail sentence, allowed Shennan to remain on bail pending the preparation of background reports.