A sports car driver has been convicted of causing serious injury by careless driving after forcing a motorcyclist off the road on the NC500.
Harry Parkin claimed bikers used the popular tourist route “like a racetrack” during his trial at Inverness Sheriff Court.
But after hearing from witnesses and watching footage of the incident Sheriff David Harvie convicted Parkin and banned him from the roads for a year.
Parkin, 27, had denied the charge, which detailed how, on May 7 last year, he drove on the A832 at Second Coast without due care or attention or without reasonable consideration for other road users.
The libel said Parkin failed to keep a proper lookout and failed to observe a motorcyclist overtaking his vehicle as he began an overtake, pulling into the opposing lane and forcing the biker to take evasive action to avoid a collision.
As a result, the motorcyclist drove onto a verge and was thrown off his motorcycle suffering serious injury, after which Parkin continued his overtake and drove away.
The hearing heard that the victim had been part of a four-strong group of bikers completing the popular tourist route.
Parkin had been driving the same roads with a friend in his private-plated Mazda MX5.
The court was played grainy footage of the incident, taken by another motorcyclist’s body-worn camera, which appeared to show the two vehicles side by side before the biker toppled and fell.
A rider travelling behind the incident told the court how the group had caught up with the MX5 and a slow-moving camper van as they rounded a series of S bends in the road.
One member of the group had already successfully completed an overtake when the victim moved out to pass.
‘It just pulled straight out”
“All I saw was the MX5 just pull straight into the oncoming lane quite quickly – it just pulled straight out,” the motorcyclist told the court.
He said he saw his friend “wobble” before hitting the grass verge and coming off.
At this point, the witness said, Parkin “drove off”.
The rider involved in the incident told the court he would have been travelling at a maximum of 45-50mph on the national speed limit road at the time of the incident.
He said: “The MX5 then pulled out into the carriageway I was in at quite a rate.”
The biker said he had to move to the side of the carriageway, where he was unable to hit the brake due to debris in the road.
“I ended up being forced onto the verge, at which point the bike then flipped and flipped me off the bike,” he said.
The biker was thrown to the ground and was left complaining of being unable to breathe.
He was taken first to Raigmore Hospital, then to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, suffering from broken ribs, a contusion on the lung and blood in the pleural cavity.
The biker rejected a suggestion from defence agent Ronnie Simpson, for Parkin, that he “jumped the gun” in moving out for the overtake and “jumped” his “place in the queue” to overtake the campervan.
He said: “The Mazda was not indicating at any point before I passed that vehicle.”
‘Bikers use it like a race track’
Taking to the witness box in his own defence, Parkin declared: “Bikers use it like a race track, it is difficult to negotiate as a driver when there are bikes everywhere.
“The ratio of bikes to cars is significantly higher on the North Coast route.”
Parkin claimed he had carried out all observations before indicating and moving out.
He said he had seen the biker “begin to wobble” in his driver’s side mirror, but did not believe he was involved in the incident and so drove on.
“I didn’t believe I have been involved in an incident myself so we had chosen to continue our journey,” he said.
Parkin did, however, pull alongside the leading motorcyclist from the group to tell him his friend had fallen.
Finding Parkin guilty of the single charge, Sheriff David Harvie said: “You should have seen him. There were motorbikes behind you for a period of several miles – for a few minutes.”
He continued: “If you had properly carried out the checks you said you did you would have realised that one of them was doing a manoeuvre at that time.”
Banning Parkin, of Ridgefield Road, Oxford, from the roads for 12 months and imposing a fine of £840, Sheriff Harvie said: “This trial is an example of just how busy and popular the North Coast 500 has become.
NC500 ‘A challenging route’
“Drivers come from all over the UK to enjoy the scenery and the setting from, what is clearly accepted by all witnesses, to be a sometimes challenging route for all road users.
“It is essential therefore that everyone who uses the road do so with appropriate levels of care and attention.
“In this particular instance, you didn’t have the appropriate level of care and attention and that is why you have been found guilty.
”I’m relieved, as I’m sure you are, that the injuries sustained [by the victim] were not significantly more serious.”