A DRIVER has admitted causing the death of a popular Kelso couple and is expecting a lengthy jail sentence.
Derek Peoples, 53, and his wife Avril, 51, died within an hour of each other after a head-on smash near Carfraemill, two days before Christmas in 2012.
A High Court judge was told yesterday that IT consultant James Mitchell overtook an articulated lorry in his red Hyundai i30 and collided with a silver Kia Cree being driven by Mr Peoples.
The couple were returning home to Kelso on the A697.
Mitchell and his wife Moira were returning to their home after seeing their horses in Coldstream. Mitchell, 48, from Bo’ness, admitted causing death by dangerous driving when he appeared before a High Court judge yesterday.
Defence solicitor advocate Euan Roy said Mitchell was under no illusion about what his sentence would be.
Temporary judge John Beckett QC remanded him in custody for reports.
The court was told that Mitchell had overtaken a car and then pulled in behind the lorry. He then decided to pass the lorry about a mile south of Carfraemill.
Judge Beckett was told that when police asked Mitchell at the accident scene if he was the driver who had caused the crash, he told them: “It was me, yes.”
Prosecutor Alex Prentice QC told how emergency crews had battled to save the lives of the couple who were both trapped in the wreckage. He said both had been wearing seatbelts.
He told the court: “When paramedics arrived they noted Derek Peoples was trapped within the driver’s seat. He was conscious and shouting for paramedics to help his wife Avril.”
He said Mrs Peoples was wedged between her husband and the steering wheel.
Both were freed by fire fighters, but Mrs Peoples died at the scene in an ambulance at 4.02pm and her husband at 5.05pm at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.
The judge was told investigators concluded Mitchell should not have overtaken where he did because he did not have a good enough view of the opposite carriageway.
Mr Peoples was a plasterer and a keen member of Kelso Angling Association. Mrs Peoples worked as a day care assistant with the elderly. They had been married for 31 years
Sentencing is at the High Court in Glasgow on February 26.