A mum who crashed her car down a 30ft embankment with two children inside was twice the drink-drive limit.
Cristine Morrison tried to overtake a slow-moving camper van on the A894 three miles north of the Kylesku Bridge but clipped a verge, went over a barrier and down the embankment.
When police arrived on the scene Morrison said she had had a glass of wine with her lunch three hours earlier.
Morrison, 41, appeared for sentencing at Inverness Sheriff Court having previously pled guilty to one charge of drink-driving and another of driving without due care or attention.
Driver was overtaking in ‘poor conditions’
Fiscal depute Karen Poke told the court the incident happened on October 21 last year when road conditions were poor with heavy rain showers, strong winds and surface water.
She said: “Police were required to attend a road traffic collision at the Skiag junction.
“The vehicle had clipped the near side of the verge of the northbound carriageway, broke up the verge and crossed both lanes, gone over the barrier and down the embankment.”
Occupants escaped crash uninjured
The court heard that the drop was about 30 feet, but all of the vehicle’s occupants, including two children, escaped uninjured.
Morrison’s solicitor Mhyrin Hill told the court that the incident has had a profound effect on her client, who had suffered mental health difficulties as a result.
She said: “She has stopped drinking since the accident and is now seeing an addiction counsellor.”
Sheriff Frazer told Morrison, of Inver Park, Lochinver: “It would appear that it is perhaps fortunate that none of you were injured.”
She was fined £540 and disqualified from driving for two years.
