Rally star sues map-maker for £2 million after smash

Published on Wednesday 25 November 2009 22:43

A FORMER champion rally driver who blames mistakes in route notes for a crash that ended his career is suing for £2 million damages.

Raymond Munro, 48, alleges that the notes gave the wrong information about a bend where he lost control.

But their author, William Sturrock, insists that poor driving was the only reason for the accident. He says other competitors in the rally used his notes and completed the course without difficulty.

Mr Munro suffered no physical injury in the crash, but is said to have been badly affected mentally, to the extent that he changed from a confident businessman to someone who could not motivate himself.

The Court of Session in Edinburgh heard yesterday that Mr Munro, of Smithton, Inverness, had already won the Scottish Rally Championship of 2004 before the Speyside Stages Rally which was one leg of the competition.

It was normal practice for experienced rally drivers to buy route notes and to rely on them in a race. Mr Munro had bought notes prepared by Mr Sturrock, trading as Scotmaps, of Brechin, Angus.

In the rally, Mr Munro had a co-driver who navigated the route by reading aloud the notes. Neither had been allowed to travel the route in advance.

As Mr Munro approached a bend "at an appropriate speed and line in terms of the notes", he saw the foundations of a wall under a grassy overlay. His wheel went over the foundations and threw the car off line, and it struck a bank.

Mr Munro's lawyers claim that the angle of the bend, rated four in the notes, should have been a seven, and that the notes, if competently compiled, should have mentioned the foundations.

Mr Munro said he would have approached the bend 30mph to 40mph slower, and two or three gears lower in his 180,000 Subaru Impreza car if he had known what he was going to find.

Mr Munro is said to have developed nightmares and suffered post traumatic stress disorder. He lost confidence in route notes and came second in a rally in 2005 which he had been expected to win. Subsequently, he gave up rallying, which had been his passion.

Prior to the accident, he was managing director of a vehicle hire business and property development companies, with an income of 180,000 a year. He sold his business, which had started to show a trading loss, and missed out on the chance of millions of pounds of profits in land deals, it is claimed.

Mr Sturrock denies liability. He says the route notes had been prepared in accordance with his long-standing practice and after a detailed consideration of the rally course. The notes had been sold with a DVD which showed an in-car view of the course. Drivers would have viewed the DVD several times before competing in the rally.

"The route notes are not intended to be scientifically accurate. They provide a subjective assessment of the course and of the bends. They do not make any attempt to provide advice as to the speed at which the course may be driven," stated Mr Sturrock.

The hearing is expected to last several days and the judge, Lord Uist, will give his ruling later.