A hit-and-run driver who left a police officer for dead after knocking him off his motorbike is appealing against his sentence.
Ewan Simpson had to have his leg amputated after Alan Tait’s Volvo smashed into him as he was travelling home from work at Fraserburgh police station.
Tait, who was uninsured and fell asleep at the wheel, left the badly injured officer in a dark field without calling for help.
Sentencing Tait, 36, to seven years behind bars at the High Court in Lanark on April 11, the judge branded his behaviour “appalling”.
He had previously admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving and five other charges, including culpable and reckless conduct by failing to get help for the police officers.
Mr Simpson had been on his way home when he noticed the Volvo veering towards him on the A952 Mintlaw to Fraserburgh road at just after midnight on October 27 last year.
The car struck the police officer, crushing his right leg and throwing him into the air.
He hit the ground “several times” before ending up in a nearby field and later had to crawl through barbed wire to attract attention.
Despite begging him to stay, Tait abandoned Mr Simpson and claimed he was going to get help.
Instead, he flagged down a passing motorist and asked for a lift to Fraserburgh – not mentioning Mr Simpson was injured by the roadside and turning down the offer of a mobile phone to call someone.
He said he thought he must have fallen asleep because he had been driving back from Liverpool since the previous morning.
Meanwhile, Mr Simpson was left in the field, trying to attract the attention of passing cars.
It was not until an hour later when two nurses found him and raised the alarm.
Mr Simpson lost his lower leg, and needed a bone graft and metal plate inserted to repair his fractured right arm. He spent almost two months in hospital.
Tait’s case will be heard at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh later today.
