A SHERIFF has concluded a 75-year-old lorry driver is likely to have suffered a temporary black-out in a crash which killed a Borders Railway construction worker.

Huw Jenkins, 54, died after being thrown from the rear window of his tractor which was pulling a trailer at the time when an HGV was driven by pensioner John Boyes ploughed into the back of it.

Following a fatal accident inquiry at Selkirk Sheriff Court, it was determined there were no reasonable precautions that could have been taken where the accident resulting in death might have been avoided or no defects in any system of working.

It heard how Mr Boyes - who has since died - appeared confused and had no idea what had happened when spoken to by police officers.

But he had driven the lorry for about a mile afterwards negotiating bends and parked vehicles before bringing his lorry to a halt.

This led Sheriff Michael Wood to believe Mr Boyes could have suffered temporary loss of consciousness, otherwise known as a black-out, but made a full recovery.

The fatal accident happened on the A7 road one mile north of Galashiels, on May 1, 2014, while Mr Jenkins from Tonamwr, South Wales, was working on the £300m Borders Railway construction.

In his determination Sheriff Wood said medical evidence was unable to provide an explanation although the inquiry heard Mr Boyes suffered transient loss of consciousness while a passenger two months after the fatal accident.

The sheriff stated:"Faced with such medical uncertainty it is difficult to reach any conclusion other than that such evidence was adduced of Mr Boyes appearance and condition immediately after the accident is consistent with his having suffered transient loss of consciousness while driving. The extent of the loss could not be established and it is possible that, as was reported by his wife on 19 July he was 'on and off' which might explain the lorry being driven for the post accident mile."

Mr Boyes' doctor Joel Barker told the inquiry that temporary loss of consciousness was not uncommon in the population at large and the incidence certainly increased in the elderly by which he meant aged 75 plus.

The inquiry heard how Mr Boyes was involved in a minor collision in Glasgow with a car while driving the Hawick Plant Auction lorry earlier that afternoon.

Another witness told how she was following the lorry in a queue of traffic when it suddenly stopped in front of the layby near to the Torwoodlee Golf Course entrance.

She said she assumed it was to let the tractor in front turn into the lay-by but after a gap of five or six seconds the lorry moved off again.

The witness said she could see the tractor had gone about 70 metres ahead on the straight but the lorry, after building up some speed, simply ran into the back of it causing the fatal collision.

Mr Boyes had passed a medical test in the January before the accident for a renewal of his licence.

But following the fatal accident he handed in his licence and died in August, 2014, at his home at Newton-on-Mill near Hawick, after suffering a narrowing of the arteries.