A lorry driver who made a "deliberate decision" to turn across a road without being able to see what was coming - and moved into the path of a car, killing a mother-of-four - has been jailed.
Ian Moorhouse, 63, pulled out from a queue of traffic on the A811 in Stirlingshire on February 25, 2020, colliding with Amanda Boag's Volkswagen Golf.
Moorhouse moved out at nearly 25mph to make a right turn into a side road, but his view ahead was blocked by a tractor and trailer, and he was unable to see the oncoming silver VW.
Boag, 39, swerved desperately but was unable to avoid the 16-tonne gas tanker.
Motorists who rushed to her aid found her trapped and unresponsive.
Boag, who had "catastrophic" injuries, was pronounced dead at the scene by an emergency doctor.
Dashcam footage showed Moorhouse, who was driving eastbound on the A811 near Arnprior, "looking relaxed", with the radio on in the background, before making the fateful turn towards the village of Kippen, where he was due to make his penultimate delivery.
The indicators of his Grangemouth-based Flogas lorry could be heard clicking, and Boag's oncoming car could be seen for only a split second before a deafening collision sent it careering into the mouth of the sideroad and onto the left hand verge, debris "flying across the carriageway".
Sheriff Simon Collins QC, who watched the footage on screens at Falkirk Sheriff Court, said he "had difficuilty" with a defence submission that the crash had been the result of "momentary inattention" by Moorhouse.
He said: "He didn't seem as if he was distracted by something, or he looked down at something. He seemed incredibly focused, perfectly clear, and made the deliberate decision to cross the road when he couldn't see what was coming."
Jailing Moorhouse for 12 months and disqualifying him from driving for 46 months, the sheriff expressed his sympathy to Boag's husband Stephen, and the couple's four children, now aged 19, 17, 16 and 12.
He said: "No sentence which I could pass could begin to give comfort or redress to the family of the deceased.
"Due to the nature and circumstances of the offence, I am satisfied there is no proper alternative but to impose a custodial sentence."
Moorhouse, whose counsel Louise Arrol had been arguing for a community disposal, looked shaken as sentence was pronounced.
Arro said earlier that married Moorhouse, 12 years an HGV driver, was "utterly devastated" by the consequences of what happened, and the effect on Boag's family's lives.
The court had heard that after the accident Moorhouse told police: "I started to pull over and saw the car at the same time as the collision. I can't remember anything else."
Prosecutor Ian MacDonald said a careful driver making the manoeuvre would have slowed to created a gap in front of him and a "good sightline" of the road ahead.
Moorhouse failed to do so, meaning Boag's car was "completely obscured".
MacDonald said: "By the time he saw the car, he was midway across the opposing carriageway, and it was too late for either him or Amanda Boag to avoid the inevitable.
"In the moments before the collision, Amanada Boag saw the gas tanker enter her lane and sought to avoid it by steering to the nearside, but there was insufficient time for her to have done anything to avoid the collision."
The court heard that Boag had left her home in nearby Buchlyvie about 8.15am that day, to travel to work at the Gleneagles Hotel, Perthshire, where she was a housekeeper.
In a tragic twist, it turned out she was not rostered to work after all, and was returning home when the accident happened.
Collision investigators concluded there could be "no criticism, at all" of the manner of Boag's driving.
Moorhouse, of Clackmannan, Clackmannanshire, pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving.
The court heard he had a previous conviction from 2013 - using a mobile phone at the wheel.
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