Police ScotlandA man told a murder trial that he came across the “carnage” of a van “buried” into a bus.
The witness was giving evidence at the High Court, where David Livingstone, 44, is accused of killing bus driver Gordon Stirling.
Livingstone is further alleged to have injured two further passengers following a collision on the A77 near Fenwick, Ayrshire, on August 14, 2023.
Livingstone is said to have been behind the wheel of a Ford Transit van at the time.
It is claimed he intentionally went onto the opposite side of the road towards the Stagecoach bus driven by Mr Stirling and caused a crash.
The 23-year-old, of Crosshouse, also in Ayrshire, is said to have been left so severely hurt that he passed away.
A man and a woman on the bus were also injured.
Livingstone faces an alternative charge to the murder allegation in that he caused the death by dangerous driving.
The dispatcher told the court in his evidence that he came across the incident but did not see the collision.
He stated that the Stagecoach bus was stopped, and the van was on the wrong side of the road.
He said: “The van was in front of the bus. It was buried into the front of it.”
The witness said that he saw the driver of the van in the driver’s seat, and he was conscious at the time. He added that the van driver was “moaning and injured.”
He told the court that he went on board the bus.
He told jurors the driver, who he came to know as Gordon Stirling, was lying unconscious on the ground on the bus.
He stated: “The van engine, the front of the van, was where the driver would be.”
The witness told jurors that Mr Stirling had a number of injuries and was bleeding.
Mr Mohammed asked if Mr Stirling knew where he was, and he replied: “He did.”
The witness said he was joined at the scene by a first aider who spoke to Mr Stirling’s father on the phone to tell him about what happened.
Prosecutor Mark Mohammed KC asked the man how he would describe the scene, and he replied: “Carnage.”
Ian Duguid KC, defending, asked if the van was on the wrong side of the road, but “heading for the correct side of the road?”
Mr O’Shea replied: “Yes.”
An HGV driver told the court that he saw the incident take place.
He said: “I saw the van smash into the bus and I saw smoke or steam then the collision happened.”
He described Mr Stirling as being in a “serious condition” and he was “surprised he was still conscious.”
He also stated that the scene was “definitely traumatic.”
Another witness told jurors: “There was a halo of fuel and debris around the vehicles” after the collision took place.
He stated that the van was not driving “out of the ordinary” and was going at a “normal speed.”
The trial continues on Monday before Judge Lord Mulholland.
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