A motorcyclist who died following a collision with a tourist’s car on the A82 by Glencoe was travelling in his own lane at, or under, the speed limit when the crash occurred, a jury has been told.
Jurors in the trial of Enrique Maffiote – who denies a single charge of causing death by careless driving – heard that Ross Dominick was assessed to have been travelling at between 45 and 60 miles per hour at the point of impact.
Police crash investigator Malcolm Duncan told the court his report concluded: “It is our opinion that responsibility for this collision lies with the driver of the Mazda, who has turned into the path of the BMW motorcycle.”
Constable Duncan took to the witness box on the second day of evidence in the trial of Maffiote – who is from Tenerife and who, the court previously heard, had been visiting the Highlands with his wife and child when the crash happened on July 23 2023.
In evidence led by fiscal depute Niall MacDonald, the roads policing officer told the court that investigations had determined Mr Dominick, who was thrown from his BMW S1000R, landed 46.09 metres away from the estimated point of impact – almost half the distance estimated by a previous witness in the trial.Â
He said the investigation concluded that Mr Dominick’s motorcycle had been “upright” when it collided with the Mazda driven by Maffiote – potentially indicating that Mr Dominick had “not had time to react and apply the brakes.”
In a report prepared following the investigation, he concluded: “It is our opinion that the views of the BMW S1000R would have been available to the driver for at least 6.93 seconds if he was stationary waiting to turn in.”
Airbag data showed car’s speed
But the court heard that Maffiote did not come to a stop before commencing a manoeuvre to turn into the Buchaille Etive Beag car park, with airbag data indicating that he was travelling at six miles per hour when the airbags deployed.
Giving evidence in his own defence under questioning from solicitor Graham Mann, the 55-year-old university professor Maffiote said he had made the decision to turn after seeing a dark car in the opposite lane slowing to turn into an entrance further along the road – thus slowing the traffic.
He told the court that he had not seen the motorcycle before the collision.
Speaking through an interpreter, he said: “I think there is something like an obstacle or a vehicle that covered my view to the motorcycle.”
He said he heard his wife – who previously testified that she saw a motorcycle carrying out an overtake before the crash – saying: “Not right now” but did not have time to react before the impact.
“It was instantaneous,” the interpreter relayed: “He heard what she said, he heard an acceleration and an impact at the same time.”
Under cross-examination, he told Mr MacDonald: “I only knew that there was a motorbike when the collision happened.”
He said he knew he was paying attention because he was “not gambling the life of his family and son”.
Driver tells court: ‘I didn’t see it’
He told the fiscal depute: “What I know is that I didn’t see it. What I also know is that I looked. I saw the road in front. I saw the other vehicles and the bike was not there.”
A second crash investigator, Timothy Alderson, for the defence, told the court that he believed Maffiote and Mr Dominck had both made choices at a point when they were “unsighted”.
He said: “I think there is a high probability two decisions were taken – for Mr Maffiote to commence the manoeuvre and for Mr Dominck to commence the overtake.”
He said that by the time this became apparent, Mr Maffiote had been “at the point of no return”.
He said: “Even if he had seen, he would not have been about to stop in that time.”
The trial – before Sheriff Sara Matheson – continues.