A man who attempted an overtake approaching a blind bend and into the path of an oncoming motorcyclist has admitted dangerous driving.
Mikhal Oshkin was trying to pass a bus with 10 passengers on board on the B9176 south of Aultnamain.
He pulled into the oncoming carriageway just before a bend, causing an oncoming motorcyclist to take evasive action.
Oshkin, 32, appeared at Tain Sheriff Court to admit a single charge of dangerous driving by failing to keep a proper lookout for the road ahead, overtaking before a bend into the path of an oncoming vehicle and causing it to take evasive action on August 17 of last year.
Bus driver noticed car close behind
Fiscal depute Shamielah Ghafar said that it was just before 5pm when a bus driver with 10 passengers on board noticed Oshkin’s vehicle driving closely behind him on the B9176 road, known locally as the Struie.
The car was “moving in and out of the oncoming lane” and the bus driver thought it was looking for an opportunity to overtake.
Ms Ghafar said: “There was a blind left-hand corner on the double track and the bus driver could see from his wing mirror that the accused was mid-way through an attempted overtake.
Motorcyclist saw driver ‘speeding towards him’
“At this time there was an oncoming motorcycle rounding the left-hand bend ahead of him”
The court hears that the motorcyclist noticed Oshkin’s car “speeding towards him in his lane” and reacted by throttling down and taking evasive action by pulling to his left.
Oshkin also took evasive action and pulled to his left to avoid hitting the motorbike before both vehicles stopped and police were contacted.
Solicitor Kevin Hughes, for Oshkin, said his client is a Russian national in the UK on a working visa as a project engineer.
He had been in the country since October 2023 and had applied for a UK provisional licence with a view to getting a full UK licence.
He does hold a full Russian licence.
‘Thankfully no one was injured’
Mr Hughes said: “He was driving with his wife to visit the beach, he had no reason to rush. He accepts that he should have been much, much more careful than he was.
“Thankfully no one was injured.”
Sheriff Neil Wilson told Oshkin, of Links Road, Aberdeen: “This is plainly dangerous driving.”
He disqualified him from holding or obtaining a UK licence for a year and fined him £1040.