A former police officer who was involved in a car crash after going through a red light as she responded to a colleague’s distress call has overturned her driving ban.
Natasha Watt admitted dangerous driving when she appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court in February, and was disqualified for a year.
But the 23-year-old, of Kintore, appealed and sheriffs have now quashed the ban, and given her five penalty points instead.
Watt had been employed as a constable for four years when the accident happened as she responded to an incident on November 20, 2014.
Although she had not yet been trained to use emergency response equipment in vehicles, Watt was a basic driver and had been at the wheel when she and her colleague were sent to an incident where a man had barricaded himself inside a property.
Watt heard one of her fellow officers at the scene scream over the radio, prompting her to turn on her car’s flashing blue lights.
Her counsel told the Sheriff Appeal Court in Edinburgh that Watt – who has since quit the force and now works as a support worker – approached a junction on Aberdeen’s Clifton road at about 15mph and slowed to 10mph as she went through a red light.
She had activated flashing blue lights but not the siren on the vehicle.
The counsel maintained that Watt was at the centre of an urgent situation and it was reasonable to believe she must have feared for the safety of a colleague.
She argued the sheriff who disqualified her had erred in rejecting the argument that special reasons existed why she should not be given the mandatory minimum 12-month ban.
Yesterday, Sheriff Principal Craig Scott overturned the ban and said in a judgement: “For our part, we are satisfied that the appellant would probably not have entered the junction in the face of a red light were it not for the emergency nature of the mission she was undertaking. In other words, the extenuating circumstances generated by the emergency were, to our mind, unquestionably connected to the commission of the offence.”
