Driver banned following Ross-shire crash
A YOUNG driver crashed a hired people carrier into another car in a Ross-shire town while trying to clear mist from his windscreen.
Samuel Barrett (23), of Beith, Ayrshire, was so busy wiping the screen with his hands that he failed to give way at a junction in Invergordon and drove across it, into the path of another vehicle.
Two of his passengers were hurt in the incident on Friday, February 12, at the junction of Academy Road with Castle Road. A woman had to have 14 stitches to a lip injury while a male front seat passenger broke his nose after the vehicle’s air bag went off.
Barrett (23) appeared at Tain Sheriff Court today to admit an amended charge of careless driving. He was banned from driving for six months and fined £400.
The court heard he already had a record of driving offences with nine points on his licence.
Procurator fiscal Robert Weir said the accident happened around 10am on the Friday and Barrett was driving a seven-seater Vauxhall Severo people carrier which had been “hired for a purpose to do with his employment”,
Mr Weir said that the junction in question was a crossroads. Vehicles approaching it from Academy Road could either go right into Castle Avenue or left into Castle Road but could not go straight ahead into Cromlet Drive.
A “No Entry” sign at the Cromlet Drive entrance served as a warning to drivers that it was a no through road.
Mr Weir said passengers in the people carrier became concerned that Barrett, who was supposed to be turning left, was not braking as he approached the junction.
The fiscal said: “As a result of this, the accused’s vehicle continued through the junction and a collision occurred with a vehicle travelling on Castle Street.
“This brought both vehicles to a stop with the accused’s vehicle spinning 90 degrees.”
A woman passenger who was sitting in the back of the vehicle and had been asleep prior to the crash, sustained the lip injury and internal bleeding in her rib cage, while the male front seat passenger broke his nose and damaged ligaments in one of his legs.
Barrett’s defence agent said: “Mr Barrett should have approached this junction and turned left but he failed to see it, having been distracted by steam building up on the inside of the window.
“This was something that happened on a fairly regular basis and could be resolved by fiddling about with temperature and air flow and that was where his attention was focused. He was travelling within the speed limit.”
The lawyer said Barrett worked as a labourer in his father’s window fitting business.
Passing sentence, Sheriff Chris Dickson told Barrett: “It is unsafe to drive if you cannot see properly out of your vehicle and this accident could have had much more severe consequences. I do consider it is towards the top end of careless driving.”
