Driver tells of 'terror' skid on bend seconds before family killed

Carole Smith said she stood rooted to the spot when she saw the car spin out of control and collide with another vehicle travelling in the opposite direction.

Seconds earlier she had stopped her own car because she had been left so badly shaken after she narrowly avoided going off the same bend.

She said her car "glided across the road" without warning as she was taking her two children and a neighbour's daughter to school.

"It was so unexpected," she told the hearing at Stonehaven Sheriff Court yesterday. "I couldn't work out why I was on the other side of the road. It wasn't even like it was ice. It was more slippery than that."

Mrs Smith was giving evidence on the first day of a fatal accident inquiry into the deaths of Ann Copeland, 45, and her daughters Ciara, seven, and Niamh, ten, who were killed on the A92 between St Cyrus and Montrose in January 2008.

A spillage of lubricating fluid, traced to a leak from an industrial crane, was identified by Grampian Police as being a "significant factor" in the collision following an investigation into the fatal crash.

Mrs Smith, 44, of St Cyrus, said she had been left in a state of "terror" after her car suddenly skidded on a double bend as she was taking her two children and a friend's daughter to school in Montrose.

She had immediately pulled into a lay-by 100 yards. A friend, Carol Grant, pulled up in her car behind her.

Mrs Smith, a performance analyst, said she had just begun telling her friend what had happened and of the need to "tell somebody there was something on the road" when a car travelling towards Montrose collided with a car heading towards St Cyrus.

The southbound car spun completely around and collided with the northbound vehicle.

She said the collision was "inevitable", adding: "I was rooted to the spot. I couldn't move."

Mrs Grant later told the court that she had rushed to the scene of the accident. One of the cars, a Citron Berlingo, had sustained a "little bit" of damage to its front. But the second vehicle, a Citron Saxo, was badly damaged.

Mrs Grant, 46, a housewife of Lochside Road, St Cyrus, said: "The passenger side was all caved in. I saw the driver. I saw a child in the back in a car seat. I tried to open the driver's door but I couldn't open it."She explained that, as other people arrived at the accident scene, she had been asked to help the couple who were trapped in the Berlingo and had gathered some blankets to help the injured.

Isobel McLachlan, 54, who had been a passenger in the other car involved in the fatal crash, had to be taken from court by ambulance after becoming ill while giving evidence at the inquiry.

"The first I knew of it was seeing part of this other car filling my windscreen," she told the court.

"I saw it a split second before the impact. There was a severe collision. I felt the impact."

The inquiry, which is expected to last two weeks, continues.