A truck driver told a trial about the horror moment when he saw a cyclist being run over by another HGV vehicle.
Gary Parks was sitting at traffic lights when he saw a tipper truck heading towards cyclist Stuart Elliott at a busy Edinburgh junction.
The 46-year-old described frantically sounding his horn to try and alert fellow trucker John Crowe about the danger.
Gary said he saw the truck hit the bike’s back tyre, throwing Stuart to the ground and under the large wheels.
He was giving evidence at the first day of Crowe’s trial at the city’s sheriff court on Tuesday.
Crowe was driving the truck when it collided with Stuart, a University of Edinburgh PhD student, as he rode his bike. The 60-year-old denies driving without due care and attention and failing to carry out sufficient mirror checks.
Crowe collided with Stuart, 40, who was expecting a child with his pregnant partner, at the junction between Portobello’s High Street and Sir Harry Lauder Road.
Gary, who drove tanks in the Army before getting his HGV licence five years ago, said he was waiting at traffic lights on Sir Harry Lauder Road as he waited to turn right onto the High Street. He was driving a truck “very similar” to the vehicle involved in the crash.
Gary said he spotted both an HGV and a helmeted cyclist on its nearside in a filter lane.
He added: “I remember seeing the cyclist there and wondering if that truck driver had seen him.”
Later he described the HGV hitting the bike’s back tyre. He added: “The cyclist came off. I think he landed flat faced on the kerb to his left.
“The truck still hadn’t seen him and kept coming. I’m trying to press the horn. It was the front two tyres.”
Gary said the cyclist was run over, adding: “I looked away after that.”
The witness said he’d seen the cyclist “wobble” before the collision and believed he might’ve “slipped a gear”. He added: “There was a split second when I saw the cyclist wobble on his bike and the truck was still gaining on him. That’s the point when I knew the lorry driver hadn’t seen him.”
Gary told the jury he recalled the HGV driver checking his mirrors after he sounded his horn in warning. Later he agreed with his police statement that he saw Crowe looking in his mirrors before that.
Following the collision, Gary said he called police as he pulled round onto the High Street. He described conditions at around 10am on March 13 2019 when the incident took place as “dry” and “sunny”.
Witness Alan Wylie, 35, said he’d been in his car behind Crowe’s truck and hadn’t seen Stuart on his bike.
Alan, a social worker, said he heard a “clang of metal” but didn’t see a collision.
The court was told Stuart, who lived just half a mile from the crash scene, was pronounced dead at 10.29am. A postmortem found he’d suffered trunk and leg injuries.
The trial continues.
