Recovery driver saw fatal smash

THE DRIVER of a recovery lorry watched in horror as an articulated truck jack-knifed into a crashed car, killing the motorist.

David Thorburn, 61, had been called out to uplift the damaged BMW from the A1 in the Borders after it skidded off the road.

But the driver, Dr Mahmoud Abdel-Fattah, became “irate” when he was told the recovery did not include taking him home to Dunfermline, Fife.

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The 42-year-old got back into his car to call the AA to complain. Mr Thorburn crossed the road to call police from his lorry to ask them to close the icebound road.

But during the call he saw a “fast-moving” articulated lorry approaching, which smashed into Dr Abdel-Fattah’s car, the High Court in Livingston was told yesterday.

Mr Thorburn, from Cockburnspath, Borders, said: “The wagon just smashed past the front of my lorry, then there was an explosion when the lorry hit the car. I told the police: ‘Get an ambulance here – this is bad’.”

Marc Bell, 38, of Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, denies being responsible for killing Dr Abdel-Fattah by driving dangerously on the A1 road between Newcastle and Edinburgh in January 2010.

The trial before temporary judge John Beckett continues.