A woman who knocked down and killed a pensioner on a pedestrian crossing has avoided jail.
Emily Arbuthnott was blinded by the sun’s glare and did not see James Lyall as he walked across a zebra crossing in Inverbervie’s King Street.
After failing to slow down in her black Audi A3, the mother-of three ploughed her car into the 82-year-old just after 3.15pm on November 5, 2014.
Mr Lyall was taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in an ambulance under a police escort but later died of serious head injuries.
Yesterday, Arbuthnott – who previously admitted causing Mr Lyall’s death by driving carelessly – appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court for sentencing.
The 37-year-old, of Arbuthnott House, Laurencekirk, cried and shook in the dock as the court heard the facts of the tragic day.
Fiscal depute David Bernard said Arbuthnott, who had been on the school run, was hysterical when she realised what had happened.
He told the court she kept repeating to other witnesses that she had not seen Mr Lyall.
Representing the first offender, solicitor Iain Hingston said his client felt an overwhelming sense of guilt about the accident.
And he said she had punished herself by withdrawing herself from her local community as she did not want to remind anyone of the incident she was responsible for.
Mr Hingston said Mr Lyall was “in no way to blame for the accident” and his client had accepted sole responsibility for his death.
However he said the driving conditions that day made it extremely difficult for her to see as she was driving south in the face of the “dazzling sun”.
He added: “None of that, of course, changes the fact that a driver is required by law to drive in accordance with the prevailing conditions.
“She wishes for me to express her profound and indeed sincere apologies to the family and friends of Mr Lyall, to say that if she could do anything to turn back the clock, she would.”
Sheriff Graham Buchanan said: “It is plain that what has happened has had an absolutely devastating effect on the accused and all of that far outweighs any sort of punishment which this court could impose.”
He ordered her to carry out 210 hours of unpaid work within nine months, placed her under supervision for a year and disqualified her from driving for the next 15 months.
Arbuthnott married Christopher, the son of the 17th Viscount of Arbuthnott in April 2003.
