PROSECUTION: Delny AOC

The car driver involved in the multiple fatality at Delny AOC in February 2007 has admitted causing death by dangerous driving.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard how Richard Fleming, 18, accelerated towards the crossing which had red warning lights activated. Striking the underside of the lead coach, the collision was so severe it knocked the engine out of the car. One passenger, Paul Oliver, 17,was declared dead at the scene. Fellow teenager, Allan Thain, also 17, died some days later in hospital.

Advocate-depute depute Graeme Jessop said "The only two possible explanations for the collision are either the accused for some reason failed to notice the red lights, or he deliberately chose to ignore the red lights."

Fleming, who has passed his test just months before the incident, also admitted dangerous driving on the A9 near Kildary, when he reached a speed of 108mph, in December 2006. The Crown accepted Fleming's not guilty plea to another charge of dangerous driving, on 25 January, 2007, when he allegedly failed to give way at a roundabout and drove into the path of a police car, and drove up to 80mph in a built-up area and over a level crossing.

Released on bail on compassionate grounds, Fleming is to be sentenced in April. The judge, Lord Brailsford, said: "I think that in this case there is a high degree of probability that there will be a custodial disposal."

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