A dangerous driver who left his girlfriend seriously injured after he crashed his car off a bridge has been told he “can’t blame the road”.
Deklyn Davidson’s girlfriend had to learn to walk again, broke her back and needed plastic surgery after his vehicle plunged from a bridge onto a footpath below.
The incident happened at the bridge over the old Formartine and Buchan railway line on the B999 at the Tillyeve junction just after midnight on June 13 last year, around a month after Davidson passed his test.
The 19-year-year previously admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving sentence was deferred for a social work report.
‘If it’s an unfamiliar road, you need to drive even more carefully’
He has now appeared back in the dock, but Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard the teen had not accepted full responsibility for the crash and had sought to blame it on his not being familiar with the route.
Defence agent Paul Barnett described his client, who was just 18 at the time, as a “hard-working young man in full-time employment as an apprentice mechanic”.
He went on: “Within the report, Mr Davidson is said to have accepted partial responsibility for crashing his car.
“I’ve had words with him at length about that issue and he wishes to offer every assurance to the court that he fully understands his driving was dangerous.
“When he spoke to the social worker he perhaps placed too much emphasis on the fact the road was unfamiliar to him.
“It’s absolutely clear he accepts he was driving at excessive speed and straight-lined the corner, causing the vehicle to leave the road and go down a considerable drop.”
Mr Barnett said Davidson was “absolutely devastated” about the serious injuries caused to his then-girlfriend.
Passengers begged Davidson to slow down
He added: “He wishes to publicly apologise for the injuries that were caused as a result of the standard of his driving.”
Sheriff Morag McLaughlin told Davidson, of Tuach View, Kintore: “If it’s an unfamiliar road, you need to drive even more carefully.
“You can’t blame the road.”
She ordered him to complete 225 hours of unpaid work and be supervised for nine months as a direct alternative to custody.
The sheriff also imposed a six-month curfew and banned Davidson from driving for 45 months.
The friend and girlfriend had begged Davidson to slow down on approach to the bend but he did not, and the Golf crashed off the bridge onto the footpath below.
The couple’s relationship ended shortly after the incident.
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