A young mum who killed a teenage biker just over a month after passing her driving test wept in the dock today as she avoided a jail sentence.
Lisa Robertson failed to spot the motorcycle as she turned her car at a junction in Aberdeen in July 2013, crossing into the rider’s path with devastating consequences.
The 18-year-old biker, Terry Crook, was flung 50ft down the road after the impact with the hatchback which caused his helmet – which was not fastened properly – to come off.
He was rushed to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary but died a short time later after suffering brain damage and a fractured skull.
Mr Crook’s girlfriend, Jenna Gaudie, 16, who was travelling on the back of the blue Yamaha, also came flying off the bike and ended up with horrendous injuries, including a fractured leg.
Robertson, who previously admitted causing the teenager’s death by careless driving, appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court yesterday for sentencing.
She was visibly upset and threw up several times as she waited in the dock to hear her fate.
Sheriff Alison Stirling said Robertson’s “momentary lapse” in attention while behind the wheel had resulted in the death of a young man.
But the sheriff also said that the fact that the 25-year-old had only passed her test just over a month before the accident was a mitigating factor in ruling out a possible prison sentence.
Sheriff Stirling said: “You pleaded guilty to causing the death of Terry Crook, a motorcyclist then aged 18, by driving without due care and attention and by performing a right hand turn whereby your car crossed into the path of a motorcycle.
“There is no sentencing option that can compensate for a loss of life.”
However, the sheriff said that Robertson seemed “genuinely remorseful” and she judged the offence to be at the lower end of the sentencing scale.
The sheriff imposed a community payback order, with 200 hours of unpaid work to be carried out in the next year.
Robertson, of Aberdeen, was also disqualified from driving for 30 months and is required to sit the extended driving test to get her licence back.
She was believed to be three months pregnant when the tragedy happened on July 16, 2013.
She was driving a white Volkswagen Polo when it collided with the bike at the end of the slip road in the city’s Provost Rust Drive.
The court heard Mr Crook had picked up the bike from house earlier that day on the “pretence” that he was going to buy it.
At about 9pm he picked up Miss Gaudie, who got on to the back of the motorcycle with no helmet.
Fiscal depute Karen Dow said: “At the time of the collision the accused was driving her Volkswagen Polo motor car west ward on Provost Rust Drive.
“As she turned her car collided with the front side of the motorcycle ridden by Mr Crook and his passenger.”
The court heard the biker was seen by a witness who believed he was travelling faster than the 30mph speed limit.
Police collision investigators who examined the scene of the crash estimated that the bike could have been travelling at a speed between 37-49mph before the accident happened.
Shortly after the collision, Mr Crook’s mother Beverley Lonie, of the city’s Torry area, spoke fondly of her son as she laid flowers in his memory.
She said: “He was a handsome boy, that’s the way I remember him.
“He was a great kid and I will really miss him.”