Pedestrian killed after walking into bin lorry ‘blind spot’

A pedestrian killed by a bin lorry had stepped off a pavement in front of the heavy vehicle at the very moment it began to move off, a court has heard.

The incident took place in Alloa, Scotland, in November 2020

Margaret Johnstone, who was “less than 5ft 4 ins tall”, crossed in “a perfect blind spot” less than 18 inches in front of the lorry, and would have been invisible to the driver, who had just got back into his cab after picking up waste bags in High Street, Alloa, a fatal accident inquiry at Alloa Sheriff Court has been told.

Mrs Johnstone, 52, died at the scene of “catastrophic” injuries following the incident in November 2020.

When paramedics arrived she was underneath the vehicle, lying behind the offside front wheel.

Driver

Driver Grant Wayley, 30, who worked for the Perthshire-based Binn Group Ltd private waste contractors, stopped after a member of the public on the pavement waved their arms to alert him, but Mrs Johnstone, from Alloa, was already underneath the 19-tonne Iveco truck.

The accident happened at 3.52 pm on November 13th 2020.

Mr Wayley, who was described as “emotional and in a state of shock”, was breathalysed and tested for intoxicants and found to be clear.

He said, in an affidavit to the inquiry, that he had checked all his mirrors before moving off, had never seen Mrs Johnstone in front of the lorry, and had no idea where she had come from.

Investigator

Collision investigator PC Fraser Mitchell told the inquiry that Mrs Johnstone, who walked with the assistance of two walking aids, had just withdrawn money from a cash machine but by the time she showed any signs of intending to cross the road, near Specsavers in the town, she was in a position where the lorry driver would have been unable to see her, either directly or in any of his mirrors.

High Street, Alloa, where the incident took place

CCTV showed her “picking up pace” to try to get to the other side of the road before the lorry struck her, but Mrs Johnstone, who was less than 5ft 4ins tall and was thought to have walked with a stoop, would have been below the bottom lip of the lorry’s windscreen because she was so close.

PC Mitchell said such blind spots were “a common feature of heavy goods vehicles”.

Post mortem

A post mortem gave Mrs Johnstone’s cause of death as multiple injuries.

The inquiry concluded on Friday, 14 October 2022. Sheriff Alastair Brown said it was likely to be several weeks before his determination was released.