A 21-year-old man whose “appalling driving” caused a head-on crash that left an elderly woman seriously injured was jailed for six months yesterday.
Nathan Stewart lost control while speeding dangerously around blind bends on a Moray road and collided with an oncoming car.
Elgin Sheriff Court was told the crash happened on the B9010 Kellas to Rafford road, near an unclassified road through Miltonduff, on October 11, 2016.
Passenger Joyce Conacher, a 95-year-old grandmother who was sitting in the other car, never recovered from her appalling injuries and later died.
Sheriff Chris Dickson told Stewart, of Queen Street in Lossiemouth: “This was appalling driving.
“This was a prolonged, persistent and deliberate course of bad driving where you went around bends without knowing there was another vehicle coming the other way.
“As a result of the collision others sustained injury and an elderly woman sustained serious injury and sadly did not recover.”
Stewart had previously admitted driving dangerously at excessive speed round bends while both front tyres were devoid of tread, before losing control and colliding with an oncoming car.
Procurator fiscal Alex Swain said Stewart had picked up a young woman, Tabitha Driver, from Elgin to go out for a drive on the afternoon of the collision.
Miss Driver described his driving as “reckless and dangerous” and that at one point she was moved to ask him how he knew there was no oncoming traffic.
He apparently replied “It’s just a chance you’ve got to take.”
A short time later, his car ploughed into the vehicle being driven by Francesca Stuart, whose grandmother Joyce Conachar was a passenger in the vehicle.
As a result of the collision, Mrs Conachar suffered four broken ribs and an array of cuts and bruises that forced her to stay in hospital for four months.
Miss Swain added: “Coupled with her age, Mrs Conachar was not able to fully recover.
“When she was released she required 24 hour care and subsequently passed away on June 12, 2017.”
Defence lawyer Stephen Carty had asked the court not to send his client to prison, saying Stewart was now in a relationship, had a young son and had “matured” since the accident.
He added: “Mr Stewart regrets everything that happened. He is guilty, as many young men are, of thinking he is invincible.”
Stewart was banned from driving for three years and ordered to resit his test to get his licence back after the ban.
