Our Daughter's Mistake Destroyed Two Families

May 27 2007 By Grace Macaskill

The parents of Julie Hutchison explain why they back our Stop The Carnage campaign

Every day Ron Hutchison wanders into his only daughter's bedroom half-expecting her to glance up and say hello.

But the empty room is a stark reminder that 20-year-old Julie is no longer enjoying the comforts of home... but behind bars. One day Julie will return home but Ron is acutely aware that her friend Linzi Higgins never will.

The 19-year-old nursery nurse was a passenger in Julie's speeding VW Lupo when it crashed. Linzi, who was not wearing a seatbelt, died instantly.

Julie, who had never even had a parking ticket, was jailed for three years for dangerous driving.

The judge, Lord Kinclaven, said the sentence should be a deterrent to other young drivers. He told Julie: "Those who drive dangerously, including diligent young men and women of good character like yourself, must realise the outcome is often a profound tragedy."

Last night Julie's distraught dad Ron, 55, of Cambuslang, near Glasgow, said: "Two young lives have been destroyed.

"We are not saying Julie should not face sort some of punishment but we feel three years is too harsh. "Julie never got so much as a detention at school and now she is in jail.


This could be anyone's son or daughter." Ron and wife Lynne are fighting to overturn Julie's conviction but are 100 per cent behind the Sunday Mail's Stop the Carnage campaign.

We have been demanding tighter controls on young drivers, P-plates for new motorists and for all drivers under 25 to take the Pass Plus advanced test.

Dance teacher Julie was just 18 and had been driving for barely a year when she lost control of her car on a busy dual carriageway in July 2005.

She and friends Linzi and Tracey Manners, 21, were on their way home after a day out at Strathclyde Park when Julie's car clipped a kerb, crossed the road and careered into a tree.

One minute they were singing along to a CD, the next, disaster struck.

Julie admitted careless driving but a jury convicted her of the more serious charge of dangerous driving.

The court heard that she had been driving at 58mph in a 40mph zone on the East Kilbride to Rutherglen bypass.

Ron said: "She was just outside the 70mph zone and was slowing down.

"Dangerous driving is a charge usually connected to someone who is drunk or under the influence of drugs - Julie was neither of these.

"We are conscious that the accident cost a life but we feel the verdict was wrong and the sentence too harsh.

"There is never a day goes by when we don't think about Linzi's family too.

"Our ordeal feels like a bereavement but we can't imagine what it must be like to lose a child forever."

Lynne, 53, added: "Julie was not one of these young racer types.

Even as a child she was too frightened to go on fast rides at the fairground.

"She is a very careful, responsible young woman with a strength we never imagined and keeps telling us it is all going to be alright andwe will get through this as a family."

Julie, who suffered a broken neck, remembers nothing about the crash.

She wasn't even told that Linzi had died until two days later.

Lynne said: "The day after the crashwe went to visit Linzi's family.

"I expected them to slam the door in my face but they were so supportive.

We have so much respect for them.

"The doctors told us not to tell Julie about Linzi for a while but she kept asking about Tracey and Linzi.

"Two days after the crash she looked into my eyes and asked if they were OK. I'd previously said they were fine but I couldn't keep up the pretence.

"I told her, 'Tracey is fine but Linzi died'.

Tears welled up in Julie's eyes and she said, 'Linzi's mum must hate me.'" Julie, who had to wear a wire cage on her neck and head for three months after the crash, has been unable to meet Linzi's parents since she died.

Lynne said: "She couldn't even face the funeral.

Seeing Linzi's parents is her inner demon. "She very rarely mentions the crash, I think that is her way of dealing with it. She is a changed girl.

"On the outside she is the positive girl she always was but I can see in her eyes that there is a sadness there."

Ron said: "We would never blame Linzi in any way for what happened but we hope Julie's story persuades other car passengers to wear seatbelts.

"We welcome any measures which stop more young lives being ruined. "Every day I go into Julie's bedroom and think about her.

I also think about Linzi's room, about how she will never return to it. "There must be thousands of empty bedrooms like that all around the country as a result of car accidents."

Lynne added: "Julie will spend her 21st birthday in prison. "These are supposed to be the happiest days of her life and they have been taken away with one mistake."