A husband has spoken about the moments before a crash which claimed his wife’s life.
At Newcastle Crown Court this week, a statement from Daniel Gilchrist, whose wife Isabel died in a crash at Kielder in 2018, was read out by the prosecution in a case against Andrew Reed (27) of Westmacott Street, Ridsdale.
Reed is accused of causing death by dangerous driving, causing serious injury by dangerous driving and dangerous driving, following the crash on June 25, 2018 on the C200 near Kielder, where Mrs Gilchrist, a teacher from Rutherglen, died and Mr Gilchrist was seriously injured.
The couple were riding a motorbike at the time.
Appearing in the same trial, which opened on Monday, were father and son, John Clark, known as Alistair Clark, (74), of Brierley Gardens, Otterburn, and Nicholas Clark (42), of Middleburn Farm, Simonburn, who operated the haulage and tipper hire company Clark Brothers, which was employing Reed at the time of the incident.
They are accused of attempting to pervert the course of public justice, and are alleged to have attempted to conceal defective tyres on the vehicle from police following the crash.
In Mr Gilchrist’s statement, read by prosecutor Vince Ward, he described the moments before the crash when he pulled his bike up behind a tipper truck, driven by Reed.
“A couple of seconds later I heard the crunch of the reverse gear of the wagon and could see it coming back towards me,” he said.
“I could hear Isabel saying ‘beep your horn’.” Within four seconds Mr Gilchrist said the truck had hit them and he heard someone shouting “oh my god I’m sorry.”
The court heard that Reed had been driving a Scania Tipper truck southbound on the single-track road, and when faced with a timber truck travelling northbound, had reversed to reach a passing place to allow it to pass.
It was alleged that Reed had not realised a motorbike was behind him. The prosecution in the case is arguing that Reed should have exited his vehicle to check blind spots.
On Wednesday, the court heard evidence from PC Shane Askew, a forensic collision investigator, who said two of the truck’s tyres had not been suitable to be driven on any road.
And a former police officer, and now collision investigator, Paul Beavis who attended the scene, said when he arrived, the truck was no longer there. Mr Beavis said: “The fact that it wasn’t at the scene meant we needed to identify and locate this vehicle in order to secure the evidence.”
But the court heard that Reed said he had left the scene to get help due to bad phone signal.
The trial continues.
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