Van driver who killed retired pharmacist in crash jailed

A van driver who killed a retired pharmacist who was driving home from a holiday in Scotland has been jailed for two years and four months.

Stephen Painter died after David Cooper, 31, failed to react in time to a stop sign and crashed into the 69-year-old's Mercedes at a crossroads junction near Meikleour in September 2023.

A court was told Mr Painter's wife Louise was travelling in the car with her husband at the time.

Cooper previously admitted causing Mr Painter's death by careless driving.

At the High Court in Edinburgh, Lord Armstrong told Cooper, formerly of Blyth in Northumberland, that there was no appropriate alternative to a custodial sentence.

Cooper previously admitted failing to make proper observations of warning signs and failing to stop at the junction.

The court heard that Mr and Mrs Painter were returning to their home in Oxfordshire at the time of the incident.

Their Mercedes and caravan rotated and left the carriageway after the collision and the van struck a trailer being towed by a tractor.

Advocate depute Lindsey Dalziel told the court: "It is accepted that the cause of the collision was due to Cooper's failure to observe and take proper cognisance of warning signs.

"He failed to react in time to a stop sign at a crossroads junction. He then drove his van onto the A93 causing it to collide with the Mercedes."

Father-of-three Mr Painter sustained fatal chest injuries in the crash and his wife later recalled how she saw a van "flying towards them" and "knew that they were going to be hit".

Defence counsel Euan Dow said the junction where the crash happened "had been deemed to be an accident blackspot" and a number of changes had since been made at the junction.

Mr Dow said: "He wasn't speeding, he wasn't operating a mobile phone or being distracted in some other way.

"The lapse related to a failure to observe warning signs."

He told the court: "Mr Cooper does recognise the harm he has caused and the anguish and loss suffered by the Painter family as a result of his actions."

Cooper was also banned from driving for three years and 10 months.