'Something happened to me' says Nairn motorist on trial for fatal crash
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A motorist involved in a collision in which an elderly man was killed insisted "something happened to me" before the crash.
Christina Cameron of Osprey Crescent, Nairn was giving evidence on the third day of her trial at Inverness Sheriff Court where she denies causing the death of 91-year-old local man James Alexander on January 21, 2021 at the junction of Thurlow Road and Seafield Street.
The 75-year-old accepted she was at the wheel of her Mazda when she drove through a give way into the path of a Honda CRV which hit her and propelled her vehicle into Mr Alexander. He was waiting to cross the road. She then hit a wall.
Mr Alexander died in Raigmore Hospital four days later.
Cameron told fiscal depute Niall Macdonald: "It is a junction I have negotiated safely over the years. I am a careful driver. I don't drive without thinking. Something happened to me. I don't lose attention knowingly.
"It took me a long time to accept a pedestrian was involved. I have no knowledge of the accident. It is a complete blank. I have tried to remember what happened until my brain hurt.
"I recalled seeing a white mini in the distance and then rising white lines before I was due to turn left. Then there was this almighty noise – a tremendous explosion.
"I did not have time to turn left and I was left trying to fathom out why I ended up on the other side of the road where I was not going.
"I have not continued to drive since the accident. I can hardly bear looking at a car. But recently I took three or four lessons in an automatic car. I will have to gain a lot of strength before I have the confidence to drive again.
"I want to drive in the future. I am not denying the car I was driving caused this fatality. But I didn't do it knowingly."
The trial has heard expert testimony about syncope (fainting), its symptoms and causes and how Cameron could have had a brief black-out after getting out of a bitterly cold day and into a warm car.
Cameron accepted she had never had a black-out prior to the tragedy nor had one since.
Dr Stuart Hutcheon, a consultant cardiologist at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee told the presiding Sheriff Ian Cruickshank that it was "very unlikely" that Cameron had a syncope episode. He was given witness statements and medical records which helped him reach his conclusion.
However defence counsel Ewan Dow will call his own expert witness, Professor Adrian Brady, on Wednesday.
He was shown the same evidence and disagrees with Dr Hutcheon's verdict.
Cameron told Mr Dow: "I have never experienced cold like it that day. I had a pain in my chest it was so cold. The heating in the car was turned up high."
The trial continues.
