Taxi driver ran over woman who had collapsed on road in Toryglen after falling ill

A taxi driver ran over a woman who had collapsed on the road after she fell ill.

John Paul Borland, 42, struck the woman, then aged 52, in Glasgow’s Toryglen on the night of March 6 2022.

The woman was placed in a medically induced coma for six days as her condition was deemed “life threatening.”

The stricken victim suffered a string of injuries including 30 rib fractures, a collapsed lung and a spinal fracture.

Borland claimed that he did not see the victim lying on the road as he was distracted by a man waving at him.

Borland was found guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court of careless driving having initially stood trial for dangerous driving.

The court heard that the woman had been at her daughter’s home and left due to “feeling unwell.”

A joint minute of agreed evidence stated: “She was due to return home when she crossed Prospecthill Road.

“[The woman] collapsed and became unconscious, resulting in her laying across he road.

“She has no recollection of the collision and only recalls briefly wakening up at the roadside and thereafter six days later in hospital.”

She was taken to hospital where her condition was being treated as “life threatening.”

She was placed in a medically induced coma within the intensive care unit for six days.

She was discharged from hospital on March 31 2022.

She sustained 30 separate rib fractures, a pelvic fracture, a collapsed lung, blood in lungs and a spinous process fracture.

The woman also suffered a fractured collarbone, right clavicle, left wrist and right arm as well as wounds to her liver, kidney and spleen.

The joint minute says: “[The victim] will be affected physically for the rest of her life and continues to suffer mobility issues and must attend hospital every two or three months for additional ongoing treatment for her injuries.”

The now former private licenced taxi driver Borland told the court in his evidence that he was starting his shift in the south side of the city on the night of the incident.

He stated that when he was driving, he saw a man waving at him in the distance from the side of the road.

Borland said: “As I got closer, I saw him waving and as I approached I saw him and that’s when I hit the woman on the road.”

Linzi McQuade, defending, asked her client why he thought that the man was waving at him.

Borland said: “I had no idea, I thought maybe it was someone that knew me or recognised my car.

“Immediately after the impact, I put the handbrake on and the first thing I did was run out of the car and a witness said that there was nothing I could have done then I asked for an ambulance to be called.”

Ms McQuade asked before the “distraction” of the man waving, if he saw the person on the road.

Borland replied: “I can’t say I saw the pedestrian on the road.”

Prosecutor Ross Canning asked Borland in cross examination if he was blaming the waving man for the incident and he replied: “I’m not blaming anyone.”

It was revealed that Borland, of the city’s Cathcart, has two previous road traffic convictions.

Sentence was deferred pending background reports until next month by Sheriff Paul Reid who continued Borland’s bail meantime.