A careless driver turned into the path of a car on the A9 and caused a crash that left a grandmother seriously injured.
Deborah Crawford made the careless manoeuvre at the Tain junction near to the Asda supermarket, causing the other car to swerve and collide with a wall.
The resulting crash left a passenger in the other vehicle – a grandmother returning from a day out with her husband and grandchild – with multiple broken bones.
Crawford, 45, appeared at Tain Sheriff Court for sentencing having admitted a single charge of causing serious injury by careless driving.
Crash at A9 Tain Asda junction
Fiscal depute Martina Eastwood told the court that, on May 11 last year, a couple had taken their granddaughter for a day out in Dornoch but by 3.10pm were driving south on the A9 to return home.
As they approached the junction with the B9174 – near the Asda supermarket, another car pulled into the left turn slip road and stopped at the give way sign.
At the same time, Crawford’s car was travelling northbound and entered the filter lane to turn right.
The grandfather spotted the vehicle waiting to turn, then beginning the manoeuvre.
“The accused has pulled across the carriageway to make the turn and has pulled into the path,” Ms Eastwood said.
Two-vehicle collision on A9
The court heard the driver tried to take evasive action, but the two vehicles collided before his car crashed into a wall.
The fiscal depute told the court that, in the immediate aftermath, the driver could hear his injured wife “moaning”.
Police and ambulance were called and the grandmother – who had been travelling in the rear of the car, with the grandaughter in the front passenger seat – was taken to Raigmore Hospital.
Neither the driver nor his grandaughter required treatment, but his wife suffered six broken ribs and fractures to the clavicle, sternum and lumbar vertebra.
The fiscal depute read an email from the injured woman, which detailed how she had also suffered whiplash as a result of the impact and had been left with pain in her shoulder and the base of her spine, which required pain medication.
She said: “My confidence to drive has still not returned.”
The woman described the aftermath of the crash as “a very upsetting and difficult time, not only for me but for my family, who have been very supportive.”
Careless driver’s ‘terrible accident’
Crawford’s solicitor, David Patterson, told the court his client had accepted full responsibility for the crash from the outset.
He said it was a “terrible accident” and said: “She understands the impact that it has had on the complainer.”
He said his client – who was visibly emotional in the dock as the case was dealt with – had stopped and assisted at the scene, and was “clearly shaken by the incident and remains so to this day”.
He said: “She wishes it didn’t happened, but unfortunately it did.”
Sheriff Neil Wilson recognised that the incident had been the result of a momentary lapse, with disproportionate results.
He said: “I suspect you know by now that it could have been far, far worse.”
Noting her lack of previous offending and personal circumstances, Sheriff Wilson banned Crawford, of Hugh Mackenzie Avenue, Alness, from the roads for 12 months and fined her £790.