A teenager caught driving at 106mph on the A96 has been banned from the roads.
Aiden Baird, 19, was clocked travelling 46mph over the 60mph speed limit at Morayhill near Tornagrain.
Sheriff David Harvie told Baird that, had he crashed, “at those kinds of speeds, everybody dies”.
Baird appeared before Sheriff Harvie at Inverness Sheriff Court to admit a single speeding charge in relation to the incident on September 2 last year.
Fiscal depute David Morton told the court that it was just after 9pm when officers carrying out speed checks on the A96 recorded Baird’s vehicle travelling at 106mph.
He noted: “The only vehicle on the road, other than the police vehicle appears to have been Mr Baird’s vehicle at that point.”
Teen apologises for speeding at ‘significant, excessive speed’ on A96
Solicitor John MacColl, for Baird, said his client “apologises for driving at this significant excessive speed for the road”.
Mr MacColl said that, although it was dark, the conditions were dry and his client was “the only moving vehicle on the road”.
He said the apprentice mechanic, of Sutors Park, Nairn, had been heading home after work and added: “He accepts that he should not have driven at the speed that he did.”
An infamously dangerous road
Sheriff Harvie said: “The A96 is an infamously dangerous road, people die on it every year.”
The sheriff told Baird that the stretch of road has “many, many side roads, country roads and driveways” from which other vehicles might emerge, not expecting a car to be coming towards them at speeds in excess of 100mph.
He said: “At those kinds of speeds, everybody dies.”
He banned the teenager from the roads for 55 days and fined him £1,040 – a punishment that will allow Baird to complete his apprenticeship and enter the workforce.