A trailer with faulty brakes turned into “an unguided missile” when it detached from the Land Rover towing it, a judge said today. Lord Mulholland told driver Mark McVay he was criminally responsible for causing the death of 38-year-old Michelle Russell because he had failed to make sure the trailer was hitched securely to his vehicle before the accident near Saline in Fife August 30 2018.
Michelle, from Alva, Clackmannanshire, had set off on the morning of the crash planning to visit her grandmother. The judge said she had no time to take evasive action as the uncoupled trailer crossed into her side of the road and collided almost head on with her car.
The injuries she suffered were “catastrophic and unsurvivable”, he said, and her death had caused grief, loss and incalculable heartbreak to her relatives, including her parents George and Margaret and her sisters Amanda and Nicola.
