A TEENAGER who was caught driving at 105mph on a notorious north-east road was spared a ban yesterday – to the fury of safety campaigners.
Grant Smith appeared in court alongside Jamie Richardson after they were caught speeding on the A98 Fraserburgh to Banff road.
Both had originally been charged with racing, but yesterday admitted a lesser charge of careless driving.
They were given penalty points and fined after the sheriff described their actions as “ludicrous”.
Last night, the Scottish Campaign Against Irresponsible Driving questioned the severity of the sentences, saying it was “a miracle no one was killed or seriously injured”.
Peterhead Sheriff Court heard Smith and Richardson, who are both 18, were caught driving at 90mph on the A98 on July 12 last year.
Smith was driving a grey Ford Fiesta 1.6 Zetec S and Richardson was at the wheel of a red Volkswagen Polo 1.4 turbodiesel.
Smith, whose address was given as Neighfield, Memsie, was also clocked by police officers using a radar gun while he was overtaking at 105mph before a bend on the road near Ladysford.
Fiscal depute Lixia Sun said Richardson did not appear to brake or slow down to allow his co-accused back into the correct lane.
Smith’s solicitor Sam Milligan said his client’s driving was “below the required standard” but asked the court to be lenient as he needed to be able to drive for his job in the farming industry.
Mr Milligan said: “Because of his employment, he does require his licence.”
Richardson’s solicitor Jane Dickers said her client, who lives at 1 Hatton Cottages, Fraserburgh, and is a trainee heavy goods vehicle mechanic, was a “quiet” and “thoughtful” young man.
She added: “He too has a requirement for a licence – he requires to drive to and from work.”
Sheriff Robert Vaughn branded the pair’s actions “foolish”, but stopped short of banning either of them from the road.
Instead they were given five penalty points and fined £900 each.
Both teenagers are now just a point away from having their licences revoked.
The sheriff said: “It’s ludicrous behaviour – extremely foolish behaviour when you’re actually both working in jobs requiring a licence.
“I don’t reasonably want you to lose your employment, but the speed is too high to simply impose penalty points.”
Last night Margaret Dekker, secretary for the Scottish Campaign Against Irresponsible Driving, questioned the judgment.
“I don’t think ‘ludicrous’ and ‘foolish’ is the term law-abiding road users who share the road with them would use – more like dangerous which is backed up by the speed they were doing racing each other,” she added.
“They had no regard for the safety of themselves or that of other road users and it is somewhat of a miracle no one was killed or seriously injured in this incident – others have not been so fortunate.”
Ed Morrow, a campaigns officer for road safety charity Brake, added: “Public roads are not racetracks, and treating them as such could easily have resulted in a senseless waste of young lives – something we still see all too often, right across Scotland and the UK.
“It is at least good to see that in this case relatively weighty fines were handed out, which should help serve as a deterrent to reoffending.”
Troup councillor Ross Cassie, a driving instructor, said irresponsible drivers had to be dealt with “appropriately”.
“Speaking in general, any excess speed – whether that be over the speed limit or for the conditions – is totally irresponsible and leads to death and family misery for a long, long time to come,” he said.
