Ban and £967 fine for Dornoch woman who was five times over drink drive limit
A DRUNKEN Dornoch driver who crashed into a stationary tanker laden with fuel has been fined and banned from the road.
Ann Durrand (62), Rowan Crescent, was more than five times the legal drink drive limit when the accident happened at a lay-by on the A9 at Tain on Tuesday last week.
Police officers were taken aback by the extent to which she was intoxicated, Tain Sheriff Court was told today.
Durrand was on a book club delivery run in her electrician husband’s works van, a Vauxhall Vivaro, at 12.20pm on the day in question.
Another driver observed her vehicle turning into a lay-by off the north bound carriageway. A tanker driver had parked up in the lay-by for a rest period 10 minutes beforehand.
Alison Wylie, prosecuting, said: “Mrs Durrand collided with the kerb, causing her vehicle to go up in the air. Without slowing down, she drove into the rear of the tanker.”
The tanker was carrying 6000 litres of petrol, 8000 litres of diesel and 205 litres of kerosene.
Ms Wylie continued: “The tanker driver was blissfully unaware of what was happening until he heard a loud bang and felt a shudder. He got out and saw a van had crashed into the rear of the tanker.
“He went over and saw the accused in the van with her seat belt still on. The other driver who had witnessed what was happening stopped as well.”
Police called out to the scene found a half-empty bottle of vodka on the passenger side of the van.
Durrand provided a breath specimen at 2.46pm, some two and a half hours after the accident. She had 118 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 22 in 100.
The fiscal said: “She was cautioned and charged and appeared quite philosophical, saying: ‘I have done what I have done’.”
Ms Wylie added: “The breath count surprised the officers.”
Durrand appeared from custody at court in Inverness the day after the accident to admit two charges, one of drink-driving and one of careless driving. Sentence was deferred for the production of her driving licence.
Defence agent Chris Munro told Tuesday’s court that his client had not touched alcohol in the last three years.
He said the offence itself had been committed because of a “build-up of external family factors”.
Durrands’s mother was suffering from a serious illness and had moved in with Durrand and her husband but had become abusive towards them.
Durrand’s husband had suffered an accident a month ago, falling off a ladder and having to be airlifted to Raigmore Hospital, Inverness.
“Mrs Durrand was at an extremely low ebb and said she felt worthless because of the continued abuse from her mother,” said the lawyer.
“She had finished work on the day in question and to avoid returning home she purchased a bottle of vodka and drunk that prior to returning home.”
Mr Munro said Durrand had no wish to drive again and had admitted the offences at the earliest opportunity. She had no schedule of previous offences.
Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood imposed a fine totalling £967 and a two year driving ban.
The sheriff rejected a Crown motion for forfeiture of the van, valued at £9000, after the defence argued that Durrand’s husband needed it in order to work.
