Speeding driver jailed for six years over death of pensioner

Published on Thursday 3 December 2009 19:53

A MAN who knocked down and killed a pensioner after losing control of his speeding car was jailed for six years yesterday.

Senga Elder, 67, died instantly after Grant Whyte's vehicle mounted a pavement and struck her near her home in Auchtermuchty, Fife, on 24 January last year.

A second motorist, former Scottish motorcycling champion Alan Duffus, 62, was spared a jail sentence and ordered to carry out 240 hours of community service. Both men were banned from driving for ten years.

At a trial last month, Whyte, 23, of Auchtermuchty, and Duffus, of Kinnesswood, Fife, had both been charged with causing death by dangerous driving.

It was alleged that they had been racing on a stretch of road into Auchtermuchty and that Duffus braked suddenly in his BMW sports car and that Whyte, travelling behind in a Vauxhall Corsa, had braked in response and lost control of his car.

The allegation of racing was deleted, but Whyte was convicted of causing death by driving dangerously and at excessive speed. Crash investigators said the speed of Whyte's car would have been at least 39mph and possibly as high as 48mph when it began braking just before hitting Mrs Elder. Duffus was found guilty of driving dangerously at a point before the fatal accident at excessive speed.

Duffus, the director of a motorcycle business, was a champion motorcycle racer in the 1970s and a bend at the Knockhill circuit in Fife is named after him.

In 1980, he was convicted of causing a death by dangerous driving and fined 2,100.

The defence counsel, Andrew Lamb, QC, said Whyte was a first offender, and had genuine remorse for the outcome of his actions that day.