A Keith man has been banned from driving for four months after admitting to causing a Boxing Day crash that resulted in another car flipping over on the road.
James McLean, 26, was on his way to work on December 26 2021 when he drove into the oncoming carriageway of the B9022 Huntly to Portsoy road.
Depute fiscal Victoria Silver told Elgin Sheriff Court that McLean had been driving on the road near Rothiemay at around noon when he collided with a car driving in the opposite direction. The weather conditions were said to be “below freezing”.
McLean admitted driving his white Peugeot 206 van without “due care” as he failed to negotiate a right-hand bend on the B-road colliding with the Hyundai Tucson.
That car, which had two people inside, rolled twice, landing upside down at the side of the road.
Paramedics attended the scene, but the couple did not need any immediate treatment.
However, they did attend Ninewells Hospital the following day suffering from whiplash pain in their necks and shoulders.
The road has ‘crumbled away’
Defence counsel Matthew O’Neill said McLean “could only apologise” for the accident and that he had been “deeply upset” by it.
He told the court that McLean works as an agricultural contractor for Moray and Aberdeenshire councils and that losing his licence could mean him losing out on work.
Mr O’Neill said the road conditions on the day of the accident were poor and McLean had returned the following day to photograph the condition of the stretch of road where the accident occurred.
He said: “There is a sudden deterioration in the road surface at the side of the road. It has crumbled away.”
He explained that McLean had tried to avoid that section and had veered onto the wrong side of the road.
“It was extremely careless,” Mr O’Neill said. “It would have been much safer if he had tried to slow the car down.
“He sees this with the benefit of hindsight. It was a momentary lapse in concentration.”
Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood fined McLean, of Redroofs, Keith, £470 and disqualified him from driving for four months.