PROSECUTORS are to re-examine a criminal case against a driver who knocked down and killed two young women after blacking out at the wheel.

The Crown Office confirmed it will re-investigate the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Mhairi Convy and Laura Stewart following a Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) into the incident.

It comes after the students' families called for driver William Payne to be prosecuted after he failed to tell the DVLA about his history of blackouts.

Miss Convy, 18, of Lennoxtown, East Dunbartonshire, and Miss Stewart, 20, of Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, were walking in Glasgow's North Hanover Street on December 17, 2010, when Mr Payne's Range Rover mounted the pavement and hit them.

He had suffered six previous blackouts but when asked about his medical history in a DVLA application in July that year, he denied any problems with "blackouts or impaired consciousness".

In the FAI judgment released yesterday, Sheriff Andrew Normand described Mr Payne's response to the subsequent police inquiry as "less than entirely frank, self-serving and lacking in credibility".

The sheriff also found five reasonable precautions which could have prevented the accident, including Mr Payne notifying the DVLA about his blackouts and attending a hospital appointment in September 2010 for further examination.

He could also have disclosed "accurate and complete information" in an application for renewal of his Group 2 (HGV) driving licence and his GP and consultant could have advised him not to drive.

The women's relatives yesterday welcomed the determination but hit out at the Crown for the delay in deciding whether or not to prosecute Mr Payne.

In a statement, they said: "Both of our families are completely devastated by the tragic deaths of our girls at such a young age."

The relatives said the words of one man had taken "the lives of our two innocent girls and his actions have killed a piece of all us".

"We have waited for justice for Mhairi and Laura for nearly four years....We waited these long and extremely difficult years for the Crown to make a decision on whether to prosecute William Payne.

"Their continuing failure to make that decision has meant we have had to undergo the further unnecessary agony of an FAI, lasting three traumatic weeks spread across nine months of this year. Our waiting continues. That is incomprehensible to us."

The statement added: "A prosecution and a criminal trial would offer the chance of justice for the loss of two beautiful young women."

A Crown Office spokesman said: "The Procurator Fiscal at Glasgow received a report in connection with an incident on December 17 2010 which resulted in the deaths of Mhairi Convy and Laura Stewart.

"Following full and careful analysis of all of the evidence available at that time, a 52-year-old man appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court on November 8 2012 charged with causing death by driving whilst uninsured.

"It is the duty of the Crown to keep cases under review and Crown counsel concluded that there should be no further proceedings at that time but reserved the right to re-raise criminal proceedings.

"A fatal accident inquiry was instructed and that inquiry took place over various days in early 2014.

"Following the issue of the Sheriff's determination into the circumstances of the deaths, Crown counsel has confirmed that a reinvestigation of the circumstances is to be carried out."