A young woman accused of killing a pensioner by driving dangerously while using her mobile phone was “distraught” following the fatal crash, a court heard yesterday.
Jurors heard Lillian Morrison was seen to “fly through the air” before hitting the pavement after the car Rachel Forsyth was driving crashed into her on Queen’s Road in the city.
Despite frantic attempts to revive the 79-year-old, nothing could be done to save her.
Forsyth went on trial at the High Court in Aberdeen yesterday, accused of causing the death of the OAP just two days after Christmas.
It is alleged that she was using a mobile phone when her vehicle crashed into Mrs Morrison.
Prosecutors allege that the 21-year-old did not notice the pensioner at an out-of-order pedestrian crossing, close to the junction with Groats Road, even though she was “plainly visible”.
Forsyth denies the charge against her.
Yesterday a jury of nine women and six men were told the incident took place on December 27, 2012, shortly after 4pm.
Witnesses said they noticed Mrs Morrison lying on the pavement at the side of the road. However they claimed it was so dark they did not realise she was a person and at first mistook her for a toppled bin or a torn bag of clothes.
One witness, Louise Lovie, said she had been driving into the city-centre from Westhill with her husband and two friends when they noticed something lying at the side of the road.
She said her husband Stephen pulled the car over to the side and they got out to see what had happened.
As they approached what they thought was a bin, they realised it was a woman.
Mrs Lovie said: “I did not expect to see someone lying on the pavement. Her stuff, like her hand bag was lying everywhere. Everything was on the pavement.
“As soon as we stopped the car I ran up to the lady. She was lying face down. She had a long coat on. I could not see her face. I ran right up to her but I did not touch her. As soon as I saw the blood I ran back to my car.”
Mrs Lovie said at that point a young woman, who was quite distressed, approached them saying she thought she had hit the pensioner with her car.
Mrs Lovie added: “She was a bit panicky when she came up. She said ‘I think I hit her’ and that was the first we knew about her being run over. Until that stage we had no idea she had been run over as she and her belongings were on the pavement.”
Prosecuting advocate depute Bruce Erroch asked Mrs Lovie if she had said anything to the young woman.
She replied: “I said to her ‘what do you mean you think you hit her? You either hit her or you didn’t’.
“My other friend Nicola took her away from it, that’s when she started getting really quite upset. She could obviously see the woman was in a bad way.”
Mr Lovie also took to the witnesses stand yesterday and identified Forsyth, of 5 Hilltop Crescent, Westhill, as the woman they had met at the scene who had claimed to be the driver.
He said: “To say she was distraught would be underplaying it.”
Mr Erroch asked Mr Lovie if Forsyth had said anything when she approached them. He replied: “I can’t remember verbatim. I remember her saying ‘I just did not see her, I just did not see her, I wasn’t on my mobile phone.”
The court heard Nicola Weaver, who had been travelling in the car with Mr and Mrs Lovie, had then taken Forsyth away from the crash scene and into a bus stop.
Mr Erroch asked Mrs Weaver how Forsyth had seemed at the time.
She replied: “She seemed really upset, very distressed and crying. We realised that she might have been the driver of the car. I walked over to the bus stop and tried to sit her down and clam her down.
“We tried to contact her work as she was on her way to work and wanted to let them know and we tried to contact her parents as well. She said it wasn’t her fault and that the lady had come from nowhere and that she hadn’t been on her mobile phone.”
Mr Erroch asked her if she had asked Forsyth if she had been on her mobile at the time the accident occurred.
Mrs Weaver said: “No. She just volunteered that information herself.”
The trial continues.