A truck driver who ran over a cyclist said “he just darted out in front of me” in the minutes after the fatal collision, a trial heard.
John Crowe is accused of causing the death of cyclist Stuart Elliott through careless driving at a busy junction in Edinburgh.
Witness Evan Wells told the city’s sheriff court on Wednesday how he ran to get a first aid kit from a nearby Aldi store in a bid to help Stuart.
Evan, 45, said he returned and spoke to Crowe who was “distraught” in the wake of the crash.
Later the jury was told how cops removed a dashcam memory stick from a vehicle which was behind Crowe’s tipper truck.
But the court heard there was no footage of the collision available, and a witness suggested police may have accidentally deleted it.
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, of Kirkcaldy, Fife, collided with Stuart, 40, who was expecting a child with his pregnant partner, on Portobello’s High Street at its junction with Sir Harry Lauder Road.
Giving evidence, Evan, a sales consultant, told how he’d been rushing to catch a bus at around 10am on March 13 2019.
He said: “I had just got across the road. There was a very unpleasant sound. I looked up. It was one of those sounds where you just know.”
Evan said he ran up the junction and found Stuart “on his stomach”. He added Stuart’s bike was “in pieces”.
The court heard another man trying to assist Stuart told Evan to run to Aldi to get a first aid kit.
After returning from the shop, Evan said he spoke to Crowe who was asking, “Is he OK?” and “What’s happened?”
Evan said Crowe told him, “He just darted out in front of me”, and made a motion with his hand going from left to right.
Later the court heard from Brian McPhillips who was in his vehicle recovery truck on the High Street that day.
The 49-year-old said there had been two vehicles between him and Crowe’s HGV in front, adding he never saw a cyclist.
Brian told the jury he was “pretty sure” the HGV had its indicators on to move into the filter lane leading onto Sir Harry Lauder Road.
He said police officers at the scene removed a memory stick from his dashcam which would’ve filmed the incident in front of him.
Brian said he was surprised there was no footage to show the court, but added if the memory stick wasn’t removed in a “specific way” then it “deletes itself”.
He said: “You’re supposed to shut the system down before removing it. (The officers) said they were going to take it themselves. I told them what to do.”
The trial continues.
