A Chinese honeymooner who caused an A9 crash in her hire car has admitted careless driving at Inverness Sheriff Court.
Jianxin Liu was visiting the area with her husband following their recent wedding when she pulled her hired Peugeot into the path of oncoming traffic.
The resulting crash, at the junction of the B851, damaged both vehicles, but the court heard no one was injured.
Liu, 30, appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court to admit a single charge of careless driving in relation to the incident on Sunday, October 6.
Fiscal depute Grant McLennan told the court it was around 11.30am when a motorist travelling northbound on the A9 noticed two cars waiting at the road’s junction with the B851.
The driver moved his white Volkswagen over to allow a vehicle to merge when the incident happened.
“The vehicle driven by the accused attempted to cross both carriageways directly in the path of oncoming traffic,” Mr McLennan said.
‘Extensive damage to both vehicles’
The fiscal depute told Sheriff David Harvie: “The vehicles have collided. The airbags in both the accused’s vehicle and [the witness’s] vehicle deployed.
“There was extensive damage to both vehicles.”
Police were called to the scene and Liu was taken to Burnett Road Police Station in Inverness where she was later cautioned and charged for careless driving before being released to appear on police undertaking the following day.
Solicitor David Patterson, for Liu, told the court his client had only been in Scotland for two days at the time of the incident.
He said: “She has been married for a few days and is currently on holiday on her honeymoon.”
He said the Beijing-based solicitor had carried out observations before her manoeuvre.
No one injured in A9 crash
He said: “She looked right, she looked left. She accepts that she probably took too long looking left across the carriageway.”
Mr Patterson also told Sheriff Harvie: “Fortunately in relation to this circumstance there was no injury.”
Sheriff Harvie characterised the incident as “an all-too-common lapse of judgement”.
Noting Liu’s clean licence and early guilty plea he imposed five penalty points and fined her £420.
