A driver who killed a young mother on her way to work while he was on a bluetooth phone call to his wife has avoided a prison sentence.
Leigh-Anne Wood, 28, of Elgin, was travelling alone along the A96 when she was involved in a collision with two other vehicles near Fochabers.
Former care home worker Robert Macdonald was on a call when his Audi A3 collided with the rear of her Peugeot 208.
Her car was pushed to the other side of the single carriageway and then collided with an oncoming tipper van, propelling it backwards.
At Inverness Sheriff Court today Macdonald, 32, was ordered to carry out the maximum 300 hours of unpaid community work and banned from driving for three years.
Her father, Duncan Smart, and 17 other members of her family were in the public gallery to hear that he must resit an extended driving test and be supervised by social workers for two years.
They shook their heads on hearing Sheriff Robert Frazer’s sentence and some burst into tears.
Outside court Mr Smartsaid: “The sentence was more lenient than we expected. But we were primed it may be in the community.
“The family will never come to terms with this. Nothing will bring Leigh-Anne back.
“We have to move on. The biggest feeling is for her daughter Charlotte who will grow up without her mum. We are all just numb.”
Macdonald’s lawyer, Grant Daglish, read out a statement from his client to the court.
Macdonald said: “A split second changed the lives of so many people that day, leaving a child without a mother and a husband without a wife.
“I have struggled emotionally since that fateful day and I will live with it for the rest of my life.
“Caring for others has always been important to me. I would do anything to change the events of that day. I am not a bad person.”
Macdonald, of St Andrew’s Square, Elgin, had previously admitted causing the death of the keen dancer and university Honours graduate and the serious injury of Edward Dunbar by careless driving.
The prosecutor added: “He had not been maintaining proper, adequate observations on the road ahead of him nor in particular to the Peugeot being driven by Leigh-Anne.
“He failed to appreciate his car was closing in on the rear of Leigh-Anne’s car, nor did he react in time to prevent his car from colliding with the rear of her car.”
‘Nothing short of a tragic incident’
There was no evidence Macdonald was travelling at excessive speed and it was likely he was distracted by making the phone call.
Leigh-Anne, the eldest of four siblings brought up in Dufftown, died instantly from serious head and neck injuries and a passenger in the tipper truck suffered a broken knee cap.
Mr Daglish asked Sheriff Frazer to impose a community-based sentence, saying: “The level of carelessness is not the highest the court has seen.
“We do not have a man who was driving dangerously or recklessly. He was relatively inexperienced, didn’t appreciate the situation and didn’t react quickly enough.
“It is a heavy burden he must bear for the rest of his life but nothing like that of Mrs Wood’s family.”
Delivering his sentence, Sheriff Frazer criticised Macdonald for being on a phone call, saying “what happened was nothing short of a tragic incident whereby you failed to observe Mrs Wood’s car slowing its speed and failed in your duty to fully concentrate on the road ahead.”
He said he decided against a prison sentence because of Macdonald’s clean driving record, the effect it has had on his health and you have shown remorse.
Sheriff Frazer was told that the victim’s husband was in shock for a substantial period after his wife’s death and it was two months before he could return to work as a rough-caster.
He looks after their three-year-old daughter.
