A German tourist turned into the path of an oncoming vehicle on the A9 causing a crash that left one woman with life-threatening injuries.
Gunter Schmieg was on holiday with his wife and grown-up sons when he made the manoeuvre at the Ralia junction, south of Inverness.
Two female passengers from the other car were left permanently impaired and permanently disfigured by their injuries.
Schmieg’s own wife suffered a spinal fracture.
Schmieg appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court to admit a single charge of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
Fiscal depute Pauline Gair told the court it was just before 3pm on August 5 of last year when Schmieg pulled his white Vauxhall Crossland hire car into the right-hand turn lane of the southbound A9 at the Ralia junction.
At the same time four people were travelling north in a blue Jaguar XF at around 55 miles per hour.
“As it approached, the white Vauxhall Crossland made a right turn into the path.”
Driver ‘braked and swerved’
The Jaguar driver “braked and swerved to the left, however was unable to avoid a collision”, Mrs Gair told the court.
The collision left the Vauxhall spinning in the road while the Jaguar came to rest in the junction.
The driver of the Jaguar checked on his passengers and found two of them to be injured and breathing heavily.
Another passenger got out of the vehicle and spoke to Schmieg, who asked if they were ok and said he was sorry.
Emergency services were called.
One of the female passengers from the Jaguar was assessed as having life-threatening injuries and was airlifted to hospital.
The second woman from that car was also taken to Raigmore, as was Schmieg’s wife.
When spoken to by police Schmieg identified himself as the driver.
After being medically cleared, he was interviewed at Burnett Road Police Station, where he was later cautioned and charged.
‘I did not see it’
Replying to the charge, he told officers: “I was going into the change lane, trying to make a turn, then the other vehicle collided with me, yes, I did not see it.”
Sheriff Gary Aitken was told that one of the women passengers from the Jaguar suffered a perforated bowel which required emergency surgery and a follow-up operation. She spent 10 days in hospital following the crash.
The other female passenger from that car suffered fractures to her vertebra and ribs – as well as bruising and soft tissue damage.
Schmeig’s wife also suffered a spinal fracture and seatbelt injuries.
His solicitor Patrick O’Dea said his client “accepts responsibility” for the crash.
He said: “I would like to start by offering his sincere apologies to the occupants of the other vehicle.”
Mr O’Dea told Sheriff Aitken that the Schmieg family had stopped for a rest shortly before the crash and said: “It was simply an incident where he did not see the vehicle – an oversight on his part.”
He explained: “I was just simply that when he took the usual observation he did not see the vehicle and has made his manoeuvre.”
“He is deeply sorry he will never forget what has happened,” Mr O’Dea continued, adding: “He would like to thank the emergency services for the care they exercised”
Sheriff Aitken told Schmieg: “It is an extremely unfortunate fact of life that this court often has to deal with holidaymakers who find themselves in difficulties in relation to motor cars and I’m sure Bavarian courts have much the same difficulty with Scots drivers the other way round.
‘The last thing you intended’
“It is part of human nature, clearly the last thing that you intended on your family holiday was to cause devastation to anyone else or indeed to your own family.
“The physical consequences of this collision have been significant, to say the least, and as Mr O’Dea has rightly said is it probably good fortune that the air ambulance was available to attend.
”It is a matter of great fortune that as bad as these consequences were, they were not worse, this could easily have resulted in the death or deaths – in those circumstances there would really only be one disposal and that would be a very significant one indeed.”
He fined Schmieg £1,875 and banned him from driving in the UK for three years, after which he would need to sit and pass an extended test to be allowed back on the country’s roads.
