A man has appeared in court admitting to causing the death of motorcyclist Allan Nicholson on the East Kilbride Expressway on November 10, 2018.
35-year-old father, William McLean admitted snorting five lines of cocaine five hours before getting into his vehicle and travelling in the wrong direction on the A725 East Kilbride Expressway at Blantyre, into oncoming traffic.
The court heard how 5 other vehicles had to take evasive action to avoid disaster as McLean sped towards them at excessive speed. The frghtening situation ended in tragedy when McLean’s car crashed into Allan Nicholson’s motorcycle.
Prosecutor Alex Prentice QC said: “Mr Nicholson was studying civil engineering and worked part-time as a sales assistant with Sainsbury’s in Great Western Road, Glasgow.
“At 6.30am he left his girlfriend’s home to travel to work. He overtook a bus on the dual carriageway and the accused’s white Ford Mondeo collided head-on with his Suzuki motorcycle.
“Due to the impact Mr Nicholson was thrown from the motorcycle, landing on the carriageway as the motorbike burst into flames.”
Despite the efforts of passing paramedics Allan died at the scene.
The accused’s car came to rest on the grass verge and he got out and said to motorists who had stopped to help: “What have I done?’
He then ran across the southbound carriageway and tried to climb a wall, but witnesses gave chase and held him until police arrived.
When they did, officers asked who the driver of the Mondeo was and McLean told them: “It was myself.”
McLean’s defence QC Tony Graham publicly apologised to Allan’s family for what had happened on behlaf of his client.
Sentence is deferred on McLean until August 27 at the High Court in Edinburgh.
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