Death of teen on M8 haunts family

THE FAMILY of a teenage girl killed as she walked home along the M8 have told for the first time how they are haunted by their decision not to go and collect her that night.

• JUST MEMORIES: Mark Hastings and Elizabeth Coulter with a picture of the teenager Picture: Phil Wilkinson

Elizabeth Coulter, 19, was walking to her mother's home in Craigshill, Livingston, with friend Liam Forbes after attending a party in Saughton when she was hit by a minibus and then a car. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Less than an hour earlier, she had phoned her mother - also Elizabeth - to ask if her fianc, Mark Hastings, would drive her back from Edinburgh.

But when Mark, 44, said he couldn't give her a lift, the teenager went "in a mood" and decided to walk home instead.

Ms Coulter, who cannot drive, said: "Elizabeth phoned me at quarter past 10 that night and asked me if I could get my boyfriend Mark to pick her up. But Mark was busy and told me to tell her to get the bus, and she went off in one of her bad moods. That was the last thing I heard of her.

"The police came to the door at about 3am and told me what had happened. I'm still numb."

The 48-year-old added: "Mark thinks it's his fault and said, 'if I had just picked her up, she would still be here'. But I'm not blaming him."

Mr Hastings, an HGV driver from Livingston, added: "It's something that I will think about all the time for the rest of my life, but there's nothing I can do that is going to change the outcome." Ms Coulter said Elizabeth, who was unemployed, would usually phone a second time to ask for a lift home, but on that particular night she did not.

"Usually Elizabeth would phone back and Mark would eventually pick her up," she said. "I tried to phone her mobile but she didn't have any charge left. She had phoned me from somebody else's phone at the party so I tried to phone that back, but it was engaged. I left a message to tell her to phone me and I would arrange for a taxi to pick her up at a bus stop nearby.

Tragic: Elizabeth Coulter

"She had about 1.45 in her pocket, which wasn't enough for the bus."

Family and friends of Elizabeth gathered at a Hallowe'en party and auction last month to raise funds to buy a headstone for the former Inveralmond Community High pupil, who is buried at Adambrae Cemetery in Livingston.

The event, organised by Martin Sweeny, 48, who used to live next door to the Coulter family in Craigshill when Elizabeth was a youngster, took place at Livingston's Grand Central and raised 815.

Ms Coulter, who thanked everyone for their help in raising the funds, hopes to have the headstone in place by early next year, and plans to have "Forever Tomboy" engraved on it.

It is thought that Elizabeth and Liam had been walking home from the Capital along the east side of the motorway on August 10 when tragedy struck. She was hit by the minibus near the junction between the M8 and the bypass at Hermiston Gait at around 11pm.Elizabeth, who lived in Whitburn, was thrown on to the opposite carriageway and was hit again by a Fiat Punto. Police believe other motorists may have struck her body without realising.

"She never had a chance," said Ms Coulter. "After she was hit, she flew right over Liam.

"She has walked back from Edinburgh plenty of times before so I don't know why she went on to the motorway. I don't understand it."

The avid Rangers fan had been looking forward to a family trip to Blackpool in September this year.

Father-of-two Mr Hastings, said: "Elizabeth was a happy-go-lucky person. Only the good die young."

Ms Coulter, who has three other children and is divorced from Elizabeth's father, Henry Coulter, added: "She was a caring person and she was always there for her friends. They are all still devastated."