A dirt bike rider who killed a pensioner after driving at more than twice the speed limit was yesterday jailed for four years.
Joshua Findlay hit 79-year-old David Gow with his KTM 300-XC bike as the victim was crossing a road.
Findlay, 25, was doing 69mph in a 30mph zone prior to hitting Mr Gow on February 12, 2023 in Balmore Road, in the Lambhill area of Glasgow.
Judge Lady Drummond told Findlay: ‘Mr Gow was a vulnerable road user as a 79-year-old pedestrian with no opportunity to protect himself from your dangerous driving.’
She told the High Court in Edinburgh the victim was a loving father and husband who was ‘deeply missed’.
The judge said she accepted Findlay had shown ‘genuine remorse’ and was assessed as a minimum risk of re-offending but she was satisfied that only a custodial sentence was appropriate.
She also banned him from driving for eight years and said he must pass an extended test before obtaining a licence.
Tony Lenehan KC, for Findlay, said his client was placed in the lowest risk category and added: ‘The coming sentence will weigh more heavily on his shoulders than the usual inhabitants of this dock.’
Findlay, formerly of Bishopbriggs, Lanarkshire, earlier pleaded guilty to causing death by driving dangerously.
The court heard that Findlay and an acquaintance, Regan Shearer, 26, had ‘both travelled at high speed going through a red light and overtaking a car’ and that ‘Findlay struck David Gow, causing fatal injuries’.
Findlay fell off his bike and suffered fractures and a punctured lung.
Defence counsel Paul Nelson KC, for Shearer, submitted that a non custodial sentence would be an ‘appropriate disposal’ in his case.
Shearer, who admitted dangerous driving, was given a community payback order, with supervision for 12 months and a requirement to carry out 225 hours unpaid work.
He was banned from driving for 12 months.
Mr Gow’s son, Craig, described his father as a ‘great family man, friend and colleague’ who was extremely intelligent and fiercely independent.
He had been at the pub and was crossing the road after he got off a bus.
Witnesses went to the aid of the stricken victim with one giving him CPR and a 999 call was made to emergency services.
Paramedics and police arrived on the scene but Mr Gow died after sustaining chest and abdominal injuries.
