A MAN has described the moment a pensioner’s car reversed over and killed a teenager as she was filling her car up with fuel.
Alexander Caldwell said he embarked on a rescue mission to find tragic Eilish Herron after 83-year-old Alexander Wotherspoon’s Ford Focus, which had its wheels “screaming”, hit her.
He told the trial of Mr Wotherspoon at Paisley Sheriff Court that he eventually found the keen netball player trapped under the pensioner’s silver car in bushes.
Mr Wotherspoon denies causing 17-year-old Ms Herron’s death by driving without due care and attention at an Asda petrol station in Linwood, Renfrewshire, on September 10, 2014.
He also denies breaching the Road Traffic Act by starting the engine of his car and reversing while the driver’s door was still open, failing to keep control of the vehicle and causing it to strike Ms Herron’s Renault Clio.
The charge alleges that Eilish’s car was moved out of the way by his actions and she was dragged underneath Mr Wotherspoon’s Focus, causing her death.
Mr Caldwell, 39, told the court: “I saw the wheels spinning backwards, I heard the screaming of the tyres.
“The lady was standing at the pump putting in petrol.
“The back of the car went up and went up on to her car’s bonnet and started to turn on its side.
“It came down full force on top of Eilish. It all went so fast – it was like I did see it, but I didn’t see it. The silver car went straight back and slightly to the left. It ended up about 20 feet away from the pump.
“I ran straight over to Eilish’s car to try and find her. I went behind the car, I thought maybe she’d been hit backwards but she wasn’t there.”
Mr Caldwell added that when he looked beneath the car she was not there. He looked back at the pump and saw the handle had broken off, he added.
He added: “I couldn’t find her anywhere. I was perplexed by that.”
His fiancee then said she had seen the entire incident and he ran over to the bushes where the pensioner’s car had ended up. He tried to give Ms Herron first aid, and saw as he did so, Mr Wotherspoon was staring “straight ahead – he was totally unresponsive to me”.
Paramedics arrived and Mr Caldwell got a jack from his own car as the paramedics did not have one. Another person in a Land Rover also helped lift the car and removed Eilish, but she was later pronounced dead after being treated in an ambulance.
A joint minute of agreed evidence detailing the circumstances of the crash was read to the jury.
It stated that Mr Wotherspoon’s Ford struck the Clio, pushing it backwards, and that the Focus then hit Ms Herron before coming to a halt.
The document added that Mr Wotherspoon, of Houston, has had two hip operations and a knee replacement, uses two sticks to help him walk and has been left with a shorter right leg because of the procedures.
The trial, before Sheriff Seith Ireland, continues.
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