A speeding nurse struck a schoolchild while driving at least 60mph in a 40mph limit – hurtling the severely injured young girl into the air.
Maisie Horn, 22, was found guilty of careless driving to severe injury and danger of life by a jury during a three-day trial.
She was going far too quickly along a B-road on the Isle of Lewis when she hit the youngster, who suffered a bleed on the brain, damaged spleen and punctured lung.
Horn, who had denied an initial charge of dangerous driving, was convicted of the lesser offence at Inverness Sheriff Court.
She was disqualified from driving for six months, following the horrific collision with a primary school pupil on December 14 2020.
The child was in severe distress
The girl was crossing the road after getting off a bus on her way home from school when she was flung into the air before landing on a grass verge.
The court was told by the bus driver that he heard the child tell another youngster to wait for the bus to move off before crossing the road.
But as he looked in his mirror moments later, he saw a figure flying through the air with their coat billowing.
Jurors listened to the 999 call during which the badly injured girl could be heard in severe distress as she waited for an ambulance.
At one point the call handler asked a passerby, who had stopped to help, how fast the car was going when the collision occurred.
He repeated the question to Horn who could be heard to answer: “Sixty to sixty-five”.
‘This is a sixty, isn’t it?’
Witnesses then heard Horn checking the speed limit on the stretch of road, asking: “This is a sixty, isn’t it?” before informing her the limit was actually 40mph.
The child was taken to the Western Isles Hospital before being transferred to the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow.
She stayed there for nine days and received treatment for a bleed on the brain, damaged spleen and punctured lung, as well as other injuries.
Her father told the court that following the incident his daughter had suffered nightmares and terrors.
He said the injuries had prevented his once “very, very, physically active” child from taking part in a number of her favourite hobbies including music and sport.
The court heard the youngster had eventually made a good recovery, but her father said: “It took a long, long time”.
Driver had ‘milliseconds’ to react
A front-seat passenger who had been travelling in Horn’s blue Toyota Yaris at the time told the court her friend only had “milliseconds” to react when the girl ran into the road.
She said the driver had braked and veered to avoid them.
In his closing speech fiscal depute Robert Weir reminded the jury how one witness described willing Horn’s car to “slow down” as it passed him travelling at speed through the 40mph limit in the moments before the collision.
He said: “You will know yourself that the faster a car is travelling the more likely it is to injure anyone that it hits and the longer it takes to stop”.
Defence solicitor Simon Hutchison, who represented Horn, told the jurors: “It doesn’t have to be a crime. Remember, it might just be a tragic accident, an awful accident”.
But the jury took just over two hours to reject that suggestion, finding Horn guilty of the less serious charge of careless driving.
‘A serious example of careless driving’
Mr Hutchison told the court that his client, now of Bridgeness Road in Bo’Ness, is currently employed as a nurse who works two or three days a week at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness and needs to travel between her home and her work.
“She has never been in trouble before,” Mr Hutchison said, and he told the court that there have been no other issues since the accident.
Sheriff Ian Cruickshank told Horn: “You have been found guilty by this jury of careless driving. This is very different to the charge you faced.
“Everyone in this court, including yourself, I’m sure, is heart sorry for what happened and we are all happy to hear that, notwithstanding the girl’s injuries, she has made a remarkable recovery.”
“The position is that you did strike her and it would appear that you were travelling at a relatively excessive speed of perhaps 60 miles per hour or more in a 40 miles per hour area.
“It remains a serious example of careless driving.”
The sheriff added that compensation would be a matter for the civil courts but fined Horn £790, before banning her from driving for six months.
For all the latest court cases in Inverness as well as crime and breaking incidents, join our new Facebook group.
