A driver who turned into the path of an oncoming motorcyclist has admitted driving without due care or attention
Lucy Russell’s car collided with the motorbike as she navigated a busy Inverness city centre crossroads.
The collision caused the biker to fall onto the road, Inverness Sheriff Court was told.
Russell, 22, was not present at court where her solicitor admitted a single charge of driving without due care or attention on her behalf.
Fiscal depute Karen Poke played CCTV footage of the incident, which took place at around 9.40pm on November 10 last year at the junction of Bridge Street, Young Street, Castle Street and Bank Street.
She said: “The two appeared just to have this collision in the middle of the crossroads.”
Lucy Russell ‘has turned right into his path’
Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald observed: “He is going straight ahead, she has turned right into his path.”
Mr MacColl told the court that the incident represented a “momentary error of judgment” on the part of his client and said: “She has got a green light. The motorcyclist has also got a green light.”
Mr MacColl drew attention to the speed of the motorcycle and said that his client had been travelling slowly at the time.
He said Miss Russell’s vehicle had “encroached very slightly” on the path of the motorcycle after which the collision occurred.
Error of judgment
He said the new driver, who has no previous convictions, wishes to “apologise unreservedly to the court for the momentary error of judgment she displayed”.
Sheriff Robertson said: “She has pled guilty. It would appear to be a momentary error of judgment. It was a significant error of judgment.
“I’m not accepting that the person on the motorbike was substantially to blame for this at all.”
She fined Russell, of Bowhuntinbridge Road, Roy Bridge, £420 and handed her six penalty points.
