'Sleepy' M80 death driver jailed

Duncan claimed he had been having difficulty sleeping at the time

A driver who fell asleep at the wheel before hitting and killing a mother-of-three has been jailed for three years.

Doreen McGregor was run over by William Duncan's car while tending to her ill son on the hard shoulder of the M80 motorway near Falkirk in July 2007.

Mrs McGregor, 31, of Dalgety Bay, Fife, was taking her family on a camping holiday when the crash happened.

Duncan, 57, from Aberdeen, was also banned from driving for five years.

In sentencing Duncan, temporary Judge Iain Peebles, said it was not possible for the court to take away the pain caused by the loss of Mrs McGregor.

He said: "What happened on the day of this incident was a dreadful tragedy.

"As a result of this incident Mr McGregor has been deprived of his wife and the children have been deprived of their mother."

The judge said there were no exceptional circumstances for him not to impose custody, but added the incident was at the "lower end" of seriousness for such an offence.

Never recovered

He said a number of factors were considered in deciding the sentence such as the fact that Duncan was not speeding or under the influence of drink or drugs at the time.

He added: "It is of course impossible for the court to place a value on the life of Mrs. McGregor. That is not the purpose of a sentence in a criminal case.

"Whatever sentence I impose will not take away the pain of the enormous loss which the McGregor family have sustained. Nor will it reconcile them to their loss."

Duncan was found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving following a trial at the High Court in Glasgow in June.

The court was told that he had been suffering from sleeping problems and was travelling in his Vauxhall Astra from Aberdeen to Glasgow when the collision happened on 15 July last year.

Doreen and Mark McGregor, who were travelling with their three children, pulled their Ford Focus onto the motorway's hard shoulder after their seven-year-old son Connor began feeling sick.

As the family left their car Duncan fell asleep and drifted across the road before careering into them.

Mrs McGregor - a supermarket team leader - never recovered from her injuries.

Her 31-year-old husband suffered broken arms, fractured shoulders and knees, a broken ankle and ligament damage to his legs.

All three children required hospital treatment for minor injuries.

Duncan, of Corndavon Terrace, Aberdeen, said he could remember nothing about the crash, but that it had left him "very devastated".