A retired offshore worked who swerved in front of traffic on a busy Moray road has had his driving licence revoked on medical grounds.
John Morrison, from Buckie, was pulled over by police on the A96 Aberdeen to Inverness road after officers watched him narrowly avoid head-on crashes.
As the 74-year-old drove between Lhanbryde and Fochabers with his wife on September 17 last year the pensioner repeatedly crossed solid white lines in the middle of the road before pulling back.
Yesterday Morrison appeared at Elgin Sheriff Court to be sentenced after admitting driving without due care and attention.
Fiscal Alex Swain described police following his Ford Fusion in an unmarked car between the Moray villages.
She said: “On numerous occasions the accused drove on the centre white lines.
“At one point they saw him cross into the opposing carriageway while a van with a trailer approached. The accused just managed to steer his car back on to his own carriageway before it collided with the van.
“The accused again drove on to the centre white lines on a right-hand bend, this time with a bus approaching. Again a collision was narrowly avoided.”
Police continued to follow Morrison’s car until they pulled him over at the A98 roundabout at Fochabers after watching him “swerve” in front of them from an overtaking lane.
Defence solicitor Ian Cruickshank explained his client, who served in the Navy and worked in the oil industry, had had his licence revoked on medical grounds following the incident.
He said: “His licence was initially revoked by the DVLA and that remains the position. This was certainly very careless driving and clearly he’s now not fit to drive.”
Sheriff Olga Pasportnikov said: “This was a particularly poor piece of driving but I accept there were certain medical circumstances that existed at the time.”
Morrison, of Land Street in Buckie, was fined £400 and disqualified from driving for 12 months after admitting driving without due care and attention or consideration for others using the road by failing to comply with road markings, repeatedly straying into the opposing carriageway in the face of traffic, straddling lines within the carriageway, failing to indicate while leaving a roundabout, entering an overtaking lane without overtaking a vehicle, driving along an area restricted by solid white lines and entering the opposing carriageway in defiance of solid white lines.
