A 24-year-old apprentice electrician who seriously injured his best friend in a one vehicle crash was fined £1,200 but escaped a driving ban yesterday.
Matthew Wales, of 7 Harper Close, Winnington, Cheshire, had gone on trial at Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday on a charge of causing serious injury by dangerous driving to 22 year old Andrew Watson, a workmate and passenger in his car.
It went off the road at a left hand bend on the A95 between Aviemore and Grantown near Craggan Golf course on September 6, 2014 as the pair were going to meet friends.
Wales’s car veered on to the wrong carriageway and crashed through bushes and trees before coming to rest at the foot of a steep embankment.
It had been alleged that he was driving at excessive speed for the wet conditions.
However fiscal depute Roderick Urquhart accepted a guilty plea of the lesser charge of careless driving.
Liverpool man Mr Watson, who was working with Wales on a Dulnain Bridge hotel renovation, suffered a potentially fatal head injury as well as other serious injuries.
The court heard he had no recollection of the incident or anything after the crash and ‘lost’ 19 days of his life.
Grantown mechanic Josh Rattray, 24, told the court he received a phone call from Wales shortly after the accident to come and find him because he didn’t know where he was.
Mr Rattray and other friends flagged down a car driven by Mrs Fiona Lewis, also from Grantown, and rushed to the scene.
Mr Watson had to be cut free by firemen.
One of the rescue service personnel, Mark Macdonald, told the court that vehicles going off the road at that location was “quite a common occurrence.”
Defence agent Willie Young said his client was driving within the speed limit, did not know the road and lost control of his car when he braked suddenly at the bend.
Fining him and endorsing Wales licence with nine penalty points, Sheriff Margaret Neilson told him: “Clearly your driving had horrific consequences for your passenger and they will probably live with you for the rest of your life. This will also have more affect on you than anything I could do to you.”