A careless driver has been found guilty of causing a head-on crash that left a man seriously injured.
Witnesses described hearing “screeching and braking” in the moments before Maciej Gorczewski’s Mercedes collided with a white BMW on the single track Essich Road.
One detailed how the car was “bouncing up and down” on the road surface as it approached them due to its speed.
Gorczewski, 46, had denied being responsible for the collision on the Essich road on September 4 of last year.
But a year to the day of the crash, he was convicted of causing serious injury by careless driving in relation to the incident, which left a backseat passenger in the other car with a fractured sternum.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard how the driver of the white BMW was returning from a picnic with two friends and their young daughter in the car when she spotted a black vehicle approaching and heard “screeching and braking”.
‘Out of control’
Her front-seat passenger said: “I remember thinking it is going to hit us, that car is out of control.”
In evidence led by fiscal depute Sharon Ralph, she said: “Before I knew it all the airbags were out and we had been in an accident.”
The force of the collision caused the white BMW to leave the road, while the Mercedes came to rest across the single-track.
The court heard that the driver, front seat passenger and child in the back suffered various levels of injury from the impact – including whiplash and bruising.
However, the man in the rear seat had suffered a fractured sternum, which left him unable to fully resume his work for two months.
Mercedes left skid marks on road
Police officers who attended the scene noted “skid marks” on the road that were indicative of “heavy braking” from the Mercedes.
They confirmed that both drivers provided negative roadside tests for alcohol and drugs.
One witness at the scene reported that, in the aftermath of the accident, Gorczewski was heard to comment that he “couldn’t see what he was doing because of the low sun”.
The rear-seat passenger, who suffered a serious injury, told the court he had no memory of the moment of impact – simply of coming to in a “very very disoriented” state outside of the vehicle.
He said that he was taken to Raigmore Hospital where his injury was confirmed to be a fractured sternum, which left him with a lot of discomfort and needing rest and painkillers to recover.
Gorczewski did not give evidence in his own defence.
Guilty verdict
Sheriff Sara Matheson told him that she had considered the “evidence of hard braking from him” along with the accounts of the noise, his road positioning and speed.
She said: “I find you guilty.”
The case was deferred for the production of pre-sentencing reports.
Sheriff Matheson banned Gorczewski, of Castle Heather Drive, Inverness, from the roads with immediate effect, telling him: “Having regard to your record, particularly your record for speeding offences, I will disqualify you ad interim.”
The eventual length of disqualification will be determined at sentencing, with the case due to call again at the end of October.
