An HGV driver who “dozed off” at the wheel and left the road has admitted careless driving.
Roy Dunn, 61, was spotted veering off of the A95 in his Iveco lorry on August 10 last year, before emerging from the cab with a bleeding head.
When questioned about what had happened by a road user he told them he “must have temporarily dozed off”.
Dunn, of Knowehead Crescent, Kirriemuir, appeared before Inverness Sheriff Court to plead guilty to a single charge of careless driving.
Fiscal depute Pauline Gair told the court that the incident, near Boat of Garten, was observed by people travelling in a vehicle behind the lorry.
Witness saw HGV leave road
She said: “At 5.30pm one of the Crown witnesses was travelling southbound at the locus and was made aware by another occupants that something had happened up ahead.”
She said the witness saw a heavy goods vehicle leave the road.
The witness then saw the driver leaving the lorry’s cab with a bloodied head.
They asked if he had any medical conditions which might have contributed to the incident, but he replied that he had none and “must have temporarily dozed off”.
Police attended at the scene and were told by Dunn that he “must have fallen asleep”.
Breath test returned zero result
A roadside breath alcohol test returned a zero result, meaning there was no alcohol present.
Solicitor Rory Gowans, for Dunn, told the court that his client was an HGV driver with 25 years of experience.
He said that at the time of the incident Dunn had been working for a company that he describes as being “the most demanding he had ever worked for.”
He added: “He has subsequently told that company he was not working for them because of the demands put on him.”
Mr Gowans said: “This is a mature gentleman, not a boy racer, he is grateful that this was not more serious than it is.”
Fining Dunn £640 and banning him from the roads for six weeks Sheriff Gary Aitken said: “He is staggeringly lucky that he didn’t injure anybody other than himself.”
