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news
Colin McCourt (via Police Scotland)Drug driver who swerved onto wrong side of road and killed cyclist jailed for more than six years
A motorist who killed a cyclist after swerving onto the other side of the road, while driving with multiple drugs in his system, has been jailed for more than six years and handed a 12-year driving ban.
40-year-old Colin McCourt was cycling home from his work as a mechanical engineer at HM Naval Base Clyde in Faslane on 10 November 2020 when he was struck head-on by motorist Scott MacKinnon on a straight section of the A814 carriageway near Cardross, Argyll and Bute.
The cyclist was thrown over the car’s bonnet and onto the pavement. He sustained serious injuries to his head and chest, as well as multiple fractures to his legs, in the collision and passed away at the scene.
Last month, the High Court in Edinburgh heard that 47-year-old MacKinnon, driving a Volkswagen Golf, partially mounted a footpath before hitting Mr McCourt, who prosecutor Neil McCulloch described as “highly visible” to all road users.
MacKinnon then struck another vehicle before his car came to a rest on its roof, with the prosecutor noting that there was “no evidence that he applied the brakes in an attempt to slow the vehicle prior to colliding with Colin McCourt”.
The 47-year-old was later discovered to have been driving with “unquantified concentrations” of five separate drugs in his system, including methadone, morphine, and etizolam, sometimes known as street Valium.
Eyewitnesses told police that MacKinnon, who had said he was “fine” when he got out of his car, appeared to be “under the influence”.
He told one police officer: “My glasses are too loose, so I had [hair] bobbles holding them on. They must have fell off my face.”
While he was being taken to the police station, he repeatedly fell asleep, and his speech was said to be “slurred” and “incoherent”.
> Drug driver who swerved onto wrong side of the road after his glasses fell off killed cyclist
MacKinnon, who had four previous convictions for road traffic offences and two related to drugs, pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving while unfit through drugs at Edinburgh High Court last month.
Defending, Janice Green said that the 47-year-old’s responses were likely to have been affected by his use of the drugs, as he bent down to pick up his glasses at the moment he began to swerve.
Green added that MacKinnon was genuinely remorseful for his actions and that he was determined to address his issues with addiction while in jail.
He was sentenced yesterday to six years and nine months in prison. MacKinnon was also banned from driving for 12 years and four months, after which he will be required to sit an additional driving test, the Helensburgh Advertiser reports.
At the sentencing, Judge Alison Stirling said: “Custody is the only appropriate disposal, having regard to the serious nature of your offending.
“The reasons for this sentence include punishment, protection of the public, and rehabilitation in a custodial setting.”
Following last month’s conviction, Mr McCourt’s family released a statement via Digby Brown Solicitors in which they expressed hope that the sentence handed down to MacKinnon would act as a deterrent to others.
“The loss of Colin is something we will never truly come to terms with,” they said.
“He was a very special person to all who knew and loved him and we miss him every day.
“This conviction is welcome and we now hope the sentencing will reflect our trauma and loss while also serving us an example to make our roads safer because we don’t want other families to ever experience something like this.
“We’d like to thank loved ones, friends, those who shared happy memories of Colin with us and the wider community for their support but now request our privacy is respected as we try to move forwards.”
Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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"Mr McCourt’s family released a statement via Digby Brown Solicitors in which they expressed hope that the sentence handed down to MacKinnon would act as a deterrent to others."
Nope. He'll be out in 3 years. That's not a deterrent.
He's "genuinely remorseful" but has " four previous convictions for road traffic offences and two related to drugs". Sure.
Genuinely remorseful that he got caught, again.
Apples and oranges I know, but I am struck by the combined 5 years and 7 months of prison time handed out to 2 JSO protestors who shut down the M25 for several hours without killing anyone and this sentence.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-65263650
As with the cocaine taking, tiktoc 'interacting' driver who ploughed into the back of a car causing a woman and her teenage daughter to be burned to death; five years seven months and a less than five year ban last week!
My thoughts are with the family and friends of Colin.
I watch quite a lot of Police Traffic Interceptor Motorway Cops when I want to turn my brain off in the evening. They often do drug wipes on - cough, cough - "erratic" drivers, and people fail because the drugs stay in their system for days...
So riddle me this: based on that, surely anyone who uses drugs at all would fail a roadside drugs test? So why is it that on every single journey I make I can smell weed wafting out of at least one car...? (I know, I'm riding in Bristol, but still...).
Even when the driver is as high as a kite and has driven onto the wrong side of the road, the prosecutor has to comment on how visible the cyclist was to head off the victim-blaming defence.
4 previous offences including driving while on drugs and he was still on the road. What does it take to ban someone from driving for life? If logical sentancing was applied then he wouldn't have been on the road and Colin would still be alive.
Quite. This example is only 6 points, merely driving without due care. It's about time they started prosecuting dangerous driving as dangerous driving and handing out bans to get these drivers off the roads. Then jail those who continue driving whilst banned.
(DM warning...)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11999541/Moment-ex-Le-Mans-cham...
The Sentencing Council and even weaker application of their guidance is the problem.
Has previous convictions for driving AND drugs offences.
So would this be an unduly lenient sentence given it's previous history?
Six years is quite substantial so I'm not convinced that there's any benefit to a longer sentence. However, I would want a lifetime driving ban just purely for public safety.
Six years, but only 3 inside possibly?
Like you though I'd be much more concerned about how we could stop this person driving - that seems to be a risk factor.
Given their history this is someone that will be costing the state / us all large sums of money - whether in or out of jail. At 47, changing that situation around may be difficult - whether they come out at 50 or 53.
That's if they take any notice of a ban: "It emerged MacKinnon had four previous road traffic convictions including driving without a licence or insurance."
The only mitigating factor in his favour is the guilty plea. With a 14 year maximum, I'd have expected nearer 9 years.
What bothers me is the lack of a parallel 12 year suspended sentence to back up the driving ban. Until driver criminality is taken seriously these tragedies will continue.
Rather than having a suspended sentence, I'd like there to be a law where anyone found driving whilst being banned would then get thrown in prison for the full length of the driving ban, even if it was towards the end of the ban.
That ought to be the function of a suspended sentence in such circumstances, breach the condition of the suspension, then straight to gaol or ideally a recycling waste sorting labour camp, no passing go, no excuses valid.
Yeah - I was just thinking that there's no need for doing the suspended sentence paperwork until the scrote is caught again. Whichever's easier to implement, I suppose.
He pleaded guilty though innit... literally a get out of jail free (ok, earlier) card.
I don't think six years is lenient but I do wonder if it will do any good without some sort of de-addiction therapy too.
I've heard that drug use in prison is still possible so exile to a remote Scottish island with a weekly food parcel would seem appropriate for this convict...