A SPEEDING bus driver who killed a Rangers fan in a horror crash has been jailed for five years.

Dad-of-two Callum Phillips, 49, was driving at speeds of up to 73mph shortly before the collision which took the life of 39-year-old Ryan Baird.

The bus, which had 37 passengers on board from the Nith Valley Rangers supporters' club on board aged from six to 60, was described as “like a rollercoaster” as it entered Crossroads Roundabout on the A76 near Kilmarnock around 1pm on October 1, 2016.

It smashed into a lamppost and then skidded along on its side before coming to a halt.

One passenger, Heather Geddes, 25, who was on the bus for a birthday treat, described Phillips as “'flying down the road with his foot to the floor.”

Mr Baird, from Sanquhar, died trapped in the wreckage.

Graeme Slider, 30, from Dumfriesshire suffered a fractured pelvis, John Campbell, 69, needed skin grafts on his arms and John Torrance suffered fractured ribs and internal bleeding.

Last month, a jury at the High Court in Glasgow convicted Phillips of causing the death of Mr Baird by dangerous driving.

On Thursday, Judge Lady Stacey jailed Phillips and disqualified him from driving or having a licence for five years.

Phillips has a previous conviction for speeding in his car in 2015, and was fined £200, and was told that “should have been a warning.”

He also has a conviction from 2005 for not wearing a seat belt.

The court heard that, after the fatal crash, he was off work for two months and left the company he had been working for, Brownriggs.

He claimed the brakes on the Iveco bus were not working.

But experts from the DVSA and from an Iveco dealership, who examined the brakes, found no defects.

Phillips told police: “I reckon I’m doing 50 at that roundabout. I tried to press the brakes. I pressed the brakes and it didn't work. No brakes. It was not slowing me down like it should have.”

The jury heard the speed limit on that road for buses is 50mph.

Phillips admitted in evidence he never once looked at his speedometer during the journey and claimed that “everyone drives at 10mph above the speed limit.”

Passengers on the bus told the court Phillips driving was “erratic and fast” and said he drove even faster after having to double back at Cumnock to pick up two people.

Defence counsel Simon Gilbride said Phillips has been “personally affected all the more” because he was friends with Mr Baird and others who were injured and has shown genuine remorse.