THE TRIAL OF A RAF Lossiemouth airman was brought to a halt in Elgin yesterday when he admitted a lower charge of driving without due care and attention.
Over the course of the two-day trial at Elgin Sheriff Court Ryan Adamson, 25, faced a charge of dangerous driving after his car had crossed into the path of another on the A941 between Lossiemouth and Elgin in August 2015.
Adamson was seriously injured in the resulting head-on collision as was Katherine McLoughlin, who the court learned could do nothing to avoid a collision when faced with Adamson’s oncoming vehicle.
The trial ended on Friday when Adamson accepted the reduced charge – he was fined £500 and had six penalty points added to his licence, allowing him to retain the right to drive. Sheriff Olga Pasportnikov heard that Adamson had struck a verge, which resulted in his losing control of his car and veering into the path of Mrs McLoughlin’s vehicle.
Defence advocate Tony Graham had earlier said that the deformation of tar on the road “was substantial” and a momentary lack of concentration by Adamson resulted in his car striking the verge.
Sheriff Pasportnikov told Adamson that she considered the level of careless error of judgement to be on the higher scale but accepted that once he had struck the edge of the verge there was “nothing you could do to regain control of the vehicle”.