A drunk driver seriously injured his own girlfriend when his car clipped a kerb, flew into the air and crashed into a tree on a roundabout.
Luke Macrae had drunk eight bottles of beer at a party and despite being warned by partner Holly Dalgetty that he wasn’t fit to drive, he got behind the wheel.
Ms Dalgetty also got in the car with him – but less than two miles later the journey ended “catastrophically”, fiscal depute Roderick Urquhart told Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday. Paramedics who were driving past in their ambulance stopped and found Ms Dalgetty lying on the road and Macrae crying beside her.
She had suffered two broken vertebrae, abdominal injuries and a flare-up on an old fractured ankle injury. Despite the crash, she has forgiven her 26-year-old boyfriend and they are still together. She was in court to hear a retelling of that night on December 16 last year on the A862 between Conon Bridge and Maryburgh.
He admitted driving while over twice the legal limit, driving dangerously and behaving in an aggressive manner by refusing to move away while paramedics were treating his girlfriend.
Mr Urquhart said: “They were at a party and Ms Dalgetty was told that he was sitting in his car with the engine running.
“She went out and told him not to drive. He told her to get into the car, which she did and he then drove off.
“He drove at speed through a chicane on the road and a witness saw the car “twitch” with Ms Dalgetty repeatedly telling him not to drive.
“A couple were travelling eastwards when they saw the car emerge on to the roundabout from their right at high speed, estimated to be over 50mph.
“The passenger in the other car said that she saw the car literally flying, having apparently struck the kerb and lost contact with the ground before impacting on a tree in the middle of the roundabout.
“The ambulance paramedics found Ms Dalgetty lying on the ground complaining of abdominal pain. He was kneeling, bent over her, crying.
“A constable took hold of his arm appealing to him to calm down and assure him that Ms Dalgetty was being properly cared for.
“He shook his arm causing the constable to be lifted from her feet and to lose her grip on him. Other constables took hold of him and after a brief struggle he was arrested.” Mr Urquhart added.
Ms Dalgetty spent three days in hospital.
Macrae, of Strathvaich, Garve, had sentence deferred until November 24 for a background report and had bail continued. He was banned from driving in the interim.
