A driver who was spotted veering across the road and hitting the kerb had taken too much medication, a court was told.
Jacqueline Glass was seen slumped at the steering wheel of her poorly parked car with the engine still running, before driving away – prompting a witness to contact the police.
A second witness saw the 60-year-old “veering all over the road” crossing onto the opposite carriageway and almost colliding with another vehicle.
Glass appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court to admit charges of driving without due care or attention and driving while unfit through drink or drugs.
Fiscal depute Karen Poke told the court that the incident took place around 11.30am on April 3 of this year.
Glazed eyes and slurred speech
She said: “At a car park in Barn Church Road the accused was observed by a witness to be in her vehicle slumped at the wheel”.
The court heard that the engine was running and the car was “poorly parked” in a parking space.
When Glass drove away, the witness contacted the police.
“Another witness saw the accused veering all over the road and onto the wrong side of the road multiple times and had observed the vehicle almost collide with another vehicle,” Ms Poke added.
The second witness also contacted the police, who traced Glass on Mamore Terrace, where she lives.
Her eyes were glazed, her speech slurred and she appeared confused and unsteady on her feet.
Driver ‘posed a real risk’
Specimens provided at the roadside returned a negative result but an examination by a police doctor concluded that the woman’s level of impairment was “significant” and that she “posed a real risk to herself and others”.
Defence solicitor Marc Dickson told the court his client had “overmedicated” for her diagnosed depression and anxiety after her home caught fire twice.
He said both fires had been traced back to faulty appliances and Glass had been left “traumatised” and in a “constant state of anxiety”.
It led to overmedication on the day in question, Mr Dickson said.
He explained the offences were a result of “an unhappy set of circumstances” and said his client losing her licence would have an impact on the mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, who regularly used her car to help her family.
Sheriff Gary Aitken told Glass: “I appreciate the difficulties you were facing but you were lucky neither you nor anyone else came to any harm because of this incident”.
He fined her £740 and gave Glass a driving ban for 14 months.
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