Drunk college lecturer killed husband and wife in crash after Christmas party

A former college lecturer who caused the deaths of a husband and wife in a crash while drink-driving after a Christmas party has been jailed for six years.

Sophie Hynd previously pleaded guilty to causing the deaths of Jatinder Kaur, 48, and her husband Satwant Singh, 64, in a crash on the B981 in Cluny, Fife, on 19 December last year.

The couple’s 10-year-old son was seriously injured in the incident.

Hynd, 33, admitted causing death and serious injury by dangerous driving at a hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh in September.

Following that hearing, the couple’s children said they miss their parents “more than words can express”.

Hynd was jailed for six years when she returned to the court for sentencing on Wednesday.

She was also disqualified from driving for 10 years.

Judge Michael O’Grady KC told her: “Calculations suggest you had been drinking on and off for perhaps nine hours.

“I accept it was never your intention to drive and you had made arrangements to be collected, but those arrangements fell through and on returning home, for inexplicable reasons you took the wholly irresponsible and fateful decision to drive elsewhere.”

Describing the consequences, he said: “A man and wife, mother and father, hard working, no doubt decent people going about their business doing the most ordinary of things in an instant had their lives cruelly snatched away.

“It was made worse by their children being there, their lives too have been snatched away in that they are forever changed.”

Sentencing Hynd, he said he accepts her remorse is “genuine and profound”.

He said: “No punishment can ever reflect the loss of a life or interminable grief.”

The court previously heard Hynd had been a lecturer at Fife College but lost her job following the crash, which happened at night on the last day of the college term.

At the previous hearing, advocate depute Lynsey Rodger said staff had joined a Christmas lunch before heading to pubs in Kirkcaldy.

The advocate depute said that Hynd, who lived in Kirkcaldy, had been drinking alcohol including cider, spritz, Prosecco and possibly a Guinness shot.

Ms Rodger said: “The accused was described as ‘pretty merry’ by one colleague and ‘pretty drunk’ by another.”

She said Hynd decided to go home at around 10.30pm and was seen to be unsteady on her feet.

After arriving at home, she then decided to go to her boyfriend’s house, the court was told.

At the same time, Ms Kaur was making deliveries in the family’s Volkswagen Polo with her husband and sons.

Other motorists called 999 after seeing the Nissan Qashqai driven by Hynd moving erratically and swerving into the opposing carriageway.

Ms Rodger said: “The accused’s vehicle crashed head-on, which caused both vehicles to come to a stop.”

Others who had seen Hynd’s erratic driving stopped to try and help, with police and paramedics later arriving at the scene.

The court was told Ms Kaur was unresponsive and was pronounced dead at the scene at around 11pm.

Her husband was in a critical condition and was taken to hospital where he was stabilised, however medics later said his injuries were “not survivable” and he was pronounced dead on 21 December.

Ms Rodger said at the scene of the crash, Hynd “smelled of alcohol and appeared to not know she had been in a collision”.

When told she had been in a crash, she denied drinking and asked if everyone was alright and if she had hurt or killed anyone, the court was told.

She was arrested and charged on 11 May this year.

Defence lawyer Ewen Roy said on Wednesday that Hynd is “consumed by feelings of guilt and remorse” and is experiencing a “level of mental anguish rarely seen in this court”.

He said: “Sophie Hynd’s decision to drive that night had consequences leading to a lifetime of loss and grief and that is a burden that she clearly struggles to bear.”

Mr Roy said: “The recklessness of getting behind the wheel that night and complete absence of thought regarding the consequences seems entirely at odds with her previous character and behaviour and it will always remain utterly inexplicable to her and to her friends and family.”

He added that the events of that night will “haunt her forever.”

In a statement released through law firm Digby Brown, Jatinder and Satwant’s three children said: “We could never have prepared for losing our parents in this way.

“It’s incredibly difficult to accept they won’t be there to share the important milestones in our lives.

“We will miss them more than words can express, but we’ll carry their love and everything they taught us for the rest of our lives.”