I will never drive again, vows L-plate student in killer crash

Student Laura Campbell, 22, died after Euan Tennant’s sports car spun out of control on a bend and crashed into an oncoming 4 x 4 Ford Explorer.

Tennant told a trial at Perth Sheriff Court yesterday that he thought about Miss Campbell every day and said he had “been going through hell” since the accident.

He also told the court that he had not driven again since crashing his 21-year-old Toyota MR2 and did not intend driving again for the rest of his life.

“I am still suffering from it dramatically,” Tennant said. “I get nightmares, flashbacks and I can’t sleep. Every day I miss Laura.

“I can’t explain to anyone in this room what it is like to go through something like that. I think about her parents and family every second.

“I am going through hell and back at the minute. Even after all this is over, nothing is going to change. I am still going to miss Laura and that is the way it is always going to be.”

He told the court he had taken about ten formal driving lessons but had never passed his driving test before buying the two litre sports car.

He said he had driven about 1,500 miles in it with Miss Campbell as his supervisor and added that she had never asked him to slow down during that time.

The couple, who were both studying at Abertay University, were returning home from a trip to Perth when Tennant lost control on a bend on the A93 near Scone on 22 September, 2010. Miss Campbell had to be cut from the wreckage and died in hospital a few hours later.

Tennant admitted overtaking a slower moving car on the road before the crash and said CCTV footage of a car speeding in Perth could have been his vehicle.

But he said he was not speeding on the corner and claimed that there had been something on the road surface which caused him to go into a spin and lose control of the car.

“I was just looking for a reason, because it was so unexpected, what happened.

“It all happened so quickly and I didn’t have a clue,” he said, confirming that he told police after the crash that “rain and mud” on the road made him lose control.

“I have not driven again since this incident and I am not going to drive ever again,” he said.

Tayside Police officer Neil Robertson previously told the trial that he thought excessive speed was the reason the student lost control of his sports car.

PC Robertson told Perth Sheriff Court he had reached that conclusion after establishing there was nothing on the road surface which could have caused Tennant to skid out of control.

He told the jury the accident could have been “exacerbated” by Tennant’s lack of experience as a driver.

Tennant denies that he caused Miss Campell’s death by driving carelessly and at excessive speed in Perth and on the A93 Perth to Blairgowrie road near Scone.

The trial, before a jury and Sheriff Michael Fletcher, continues.