A north-east police officer has been cleared of causing a crash by driving carelessly while responding to a 999 call.
Stacie Harper was on duty in March last year when she received news that a woman was threatening to kill herself on a street in the Aberdeen.
She set off in a police vehicle from the Whinhill Road station with her colleague Conor McLeod in the passenger seat and the sirens were activated.
But as she came down Ashley Road at the junction with Union Grove she drove through a red light and was hit by an oncoming vehicle on the driver’s side.
The 31-year-old had been on trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court for the second day yesterday accused of careless driving and causing a crash which injured the diver of the other vehicle.
But she was cleared after the court heard she had taken extra care.
Giving evidence in her defence, solicitor Paul Barnett asked about the extent of her injuries in the crash.
She said: “I was hurt on the left hand side on my neck and back and taken to hospital by ambulance for assessment.
“I was off work for eight months and sent to the police rehabilitation centre in Auchterarder, I still get pain from the injury.”
Fiscal depute Sophie Hanlon asked her how many times she looked left and right before going across the junction.
She said: “I would probably say four to five times.”
She was then asked whether she was the car when she looked left and she said she had not.
She added that she had been in first gear at the time and had been going at “walking pace.”
Earlier in the trial Louise McIntosh, who has been driving the other car, claimed the police vehicle had jumped out in front of her at a high speed.
She said she only saw it for four seconds and had no time to break before she hit it.
Sheriff Christine Mccrossan, in delivering a verdict, said: “I am not satisfied that the crown has established beyond reasonable doubt that you were driving carelessly and so I am going to find you not guilty.”
Police last night declined to comment on the case.