A businessman whose dangerous driving caused him to kill a pensioner and injure her cousin has failed in his bid to sue his doctor for £500,000.
Vincent Friel, 47, was jailed for three years after being convicted of hitting into Charlotte Collins, 68, at a pedestrian crossing near Glasgow’s Silverburn shopping centre.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard she died shortly after and her 69-year-old relative Margaret Haldane was seriously injured.
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Friel’s defence for the January 2014 crash was he passed out at the wheel of his 4x4 and went through a red light. His lawyers claim that Friel, of Rutherglen, near Glasgow, was on combined medication which caused his blood pressure to drop so level he fainted and wasn’t in control of his actions.
But he was found guilty of causing death and injury by driving dangerously. Earlier this year, Friel instructed lawyers to go to the Court of Session in Edinburgh in a bid to claim £500,000 of damages from his GP Dr Iain Brown.
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He claimed Brown was negligent in prescribing him Tildium – used to treat blood pressure issues – which caused him to pass out at the wheel.
But Brown’s lawyers argued that Friel used the same arguments during his criminal trial and that a jury had rejected his claims.
And Judge Lady Carmichael ruled in Brown’s favour, saying: “I am satisfied Scots law recognises it is contrary to public policy to allow a civil action to proceed in which the pursuer mounts a collateral challenge to his conviction.”
