A north-east community stalwart has been convicted of driving dangerously and ploughing into two pedestrians.
Hilda Lumsden-Gill lost control of her green Jaguar X-Type before hitting a Ford Ranger pick-up truck which was parked on Huntly’s Bogie Street.
The town’s community council chairwoman then mounted the pavement and struck Pauline Thomson, throwing her over the bonnet of the car.
The 59-year-old proceeded to drive on along the road with the mother-of-four still on top of the vehicle, before knocking over Georgina Cowper who was standing on the pavement.
Mrs Thomson was airlifted to hospital suffering from a severe brain injury and fractured skull, while Ms Cowper was left with bruising to her head and body and a fractured ankle.
Lumsden-Gill had been on trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court this week accused of causing the two women serious injury by driving dangerously.
But she denied the allegations and claimed she had been suffering from a “complex partial seizure” at the time of the collision.
Lumsden-Gill lodged a special defence stating that she had been in a state of “automatism”.
However, despite medical evidence given on her behalf from a leading consultant in neurology the jury of 10 women and five men took 90 minutes to find her guilty by majority.
The court had previously heard Lumsden-Gill, of Craigdhu, 2 Lennox Terrace, Huntly, had suffered from seizures occasionally since 1996, and that despite MRIs and scans being carried out doctors could never give her a proper diagnosis.
The court heard that on three occasions between her first fit and the incident on May 7, 2014, she had voluntarily handed over her licence to the DVLA.
It had been more than three years since she suffered a complex partial seizure before the crash.
Giving evidence on her own behalf, the retired teacher said on the day she knocked the women down she had “no premonition” or indication that she was away to have a fit.
She also said she “can only assume” she had a complex partial seizure given the fact that she can not remember a thing about the incident.
Sheriff William Summers deferred sentence until August for background reports to be carried out. He warned her that the charge she had been convicted of was a “serious one” and said all options remained open to him when sentencing her, including jail.
