A man has pleaded guilty to careless driving after crashing a prisoner transport van on a north-east road.
G4S driver Andrew Abel did not appear at Peterhead Sheriff Court yesterday, but submitted his plea through defence agent Sam Milligan.
He said the 49-year-old transporter had an “impeccable” driving record, prior to the incident on October 20 last year, but was distracted by the sun shining in his eyes.
Abel, whose address was given as 428 Holburn Street, Aberdeen, in court papers, had been transporting a custody from police cells in Fraserburgh to Aberdeen Sheriff Court at the time of the incident.
He mounted a central reservation on the A952 Fraserburgh to Peterhead road, at the Cortes junction, and crashed.
The van overturned at about 8.30am and all three occupants had to be taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary as a precaution.
Fiscal Depute Lixia Sun said the accident happened when Abel lowered his sun visor which “caused him to lose control of the vehicle”.
Mr Milligan stated that Abel would regularly make up to five trips a week to transport custodies from court to prisons in the central belt.
He said the drive to Aberdeen on October 20 would have been “routine” for Abel, who had held a licence since he was 17.
He added: “The previously impeccable driving record and routine nature of the journey would perhaps lend some credence to something untoward happening. The carelessness at this stage would perhaps be that he did not immediately stop.”
Sheriff Andrew Miller fined Abel £400 and gave him four penalty points.
He said: “This is clearly a very unfortunate incident.
“This, clearly, was a significant example of careless driving. I also, however, take account of the fact Mr Abel has no previous convictions of any kind and a long and extremely clean driving record.
“Mr Abel drove carelessly on this occasion by failing to adjust to the prevalent weather conditions at the time.”
At the time of the incident, the road was closed for more than three hours while an investigation was carried out into the cause of the crash.
