Carer knocked down eight teens while rushing to drop food off at home

A carer has been convicted of injuring eight teenage boys in a hit-and-run while in a rush to deliver Super Noodles.

Steven Gilmour, 37, ploughed into the youths – aged between 12 to 17 – outside the Molindinar Centre in Glasgow’s Provanmill on August 22, 2022.

Gilmour, of the city’s Barlanark, had been in a hurry at the time to make the food drop off at his home, which made him run late for his next shift.

The new driver – who was going too fast for the conditions – veered off the road and hit the boys with his Vauxhall Astra.

A witness described seeing the victims “scattered across” the community centre’s car park. One boy had to be removed from under the vehicle.

Gilmour ran from the scene into a nearby convenience store and had to be dragged out by a man.

The boys were later taken to hospital with varying degrees of injuries, the most serious being a head wound which required stitches.

Gilmour claimed that the crash happened after he felt a “jolt” in the car and that it was an accident.

He initially stood trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court, charged with causing serious injury and injury by dangerous driving.

However, he was found guilty by Sheriff Patricia Pryce of causing serious injury and injury by careless driving.

She said: “The mechanics of the incident are such that had you hit a pothole and were going at a speed for the road conditions, you would have been able to re-control the car and you did not, which is a cause for concern.”

The court heard from Gilmour’s partner, who claimed she asked him to pick up Super Noodles before his next shift.

She told police in her statement that Gilmour had been “running late.”

A witness said he heard a “loud bang” outside his home across from the community centre around 5.20pm and looked out of his window and “saw young lads scattered all over the car park.”

He said: “They were all in different positions – one was under a car, one or two of them were unconscious.”

The witness stated that he and Gilmour, as well as one of the uninjured youths, lifted the vehicle from the boy.

He said Gilmour was also “in shock” and claimed that he did not know what had happened.

He said the driver then left the scene and ran towards a shop where he was “trying to hide”.

The witness stated that he took Gilmour by the arm and handed him to the police officers who had arrived.

One of the boys suffered a three-inch wound to the back of his head, which required stitches. The same boy also sustained a fractured eye socket and a dislocated shoulder.

The other victims reported pain, wounds and bruises to their bodies.

Gilmour – who passed his test around two months before the incident – claimed in his evidence that his car “jerked to one side” and he tried to correct it but “lost control.”

Gilmour, a carer for young people, said that he left the scene as he was subjected to threats by witnesses.

He refuted the suggestion from Ms Docherty that he was driving too fast for the road conditions.

Calum Weir, defending, told the court in his closing submission that the collision was an “accident.”

The sentence was deferred pending background reports until next month, and Gilmour is ordered to appear.