A drink driver who ploughed into a taxi near Voe while driving on the wrong side of the road, seriously injuring three people, has been sent to prison for 18 months.
Lerwick Sheriff Court heard yesterday that Allan Prosser had been two and a half times over the legal drink driving limit four and a half hours after the accident at the Point of Mulla on August 5 last year.
A taxi driver suffered life-changing injuries and a female passenger and her 12-year-old son were also hurt. Prosser was also very seriously injured.
The 22-year-old, of Nairn, earlier admitted causing serious injury to the victims by dangerous driving and colliding with the taxi on the wrong side of the road while impaired by alcohol. His reading was 120 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood.
Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said painter Prosser was on CCTV in an inebriated state by closing time at a pub in Brae and was driven back to his digs in Voe by bar staff. But at 2am Prosser arrived back in the pub car park. When staff approached him to take his keys, he drove off in the direction of Voe again and they called the police.
The police were heading north when they came on the crash site just north of Voe.
According to Mr Mackenzie the collision happened with so little warning the taxi driver only managed to shout a warning to his passengers but was unable to take evasive action.
Defence agent Dickson said that Prosser had been dressed only in his underpants and t-shirt and was not even wearing shoes at the time of his accident.
The lawyer said that Prosser had a history of sleep walking and his sleep was even more broken after he had been drinking.
Prosser, he said, was deeply and genuinely sorry for what had happened and the injuries he had caused.
Sheriff Ian Cruickshank sentenced Prosser to 18 months in prison, reduced from 24 months to reflect his guilty plea, and disqualified him from driving for four years and nine months.