By Gordon Berry

A MOTORIST who was overtaken by a car which then pulled away from him “very rapidly” next saw the vehicle lying split in two on the roadway after it had collided with two other vehicles.

At Cupar Sheriff Court yesterday Sheriff George Evans said he had no doubt the young overtaking driver, who had been killed in the accident, had been “greatly to blame” for what happened.

The details emerged during the trial of Elizabeth Ann Dalglish (36), of Carslogie Farm, Cupar, who was convicted of a charge of careless driving, but was also told by the sheriff that “99 times out of 100” there would not have been an accident.

As he fined the accused £80 and imposed four penalty points on her licence, the sheriff told herhe had sympathy about what had happened when she had come up against a driver who was being aggressive, and who “did not have much road sense.”

Dalglish was found guilty that on January 5 last year, on the A91 between Dairsie and Cupar, she emerged from an entrance on to the A91 when it was not safe to do so and when other traffic was approaching.

The charge went on to state that a car being driven by Ryan Swankie (now deceased) had been approaching from Dairsie and that there was a collision with the accused’s car and a car coming from the opposite direction.

One witness, accountant Simon Wills (44), told the court that he had been driving his Rover towards Cupar when he noticed a vehicle, which was being driven by Mr Swankie, sitting on his shoulder, and on the wrong side of the road.

The car, he said, had overtaken him and pulled away very rapidly and he saw the rear end disappear into the distance and thought that the driver was breaking the speed limit.

He agreed with suggestions that the man’s driving was aggressive, inappropriate, and intimidating, and added that the overtaking car had certainly put a lot of distance between the two vehicles by the time the accident happened only seconds later.

Another witness, Gordon Hunter (31), said that he had been overtaken by a white Polo which then went on to pass the green Rover car in front of him.

The next thing he knew, he said, was that he saw “a lot of shrapnel” flying up in the air and heard a bang.

He said that he had tried not to look because he was very shocked, but he had noticed one piece of the white car on one side of the road and one piece on the other.

An eye witness to the collision, Fiona Gordon (27), said that she had been driving to work, and had noticed two cars coming towards her, a red one going too slow, and a white one coming up behind it going too fast.

She said that she knew there was going to be an accident, the white car had struck the red one from behind, then another vehicle had also been involved.

Expert police witness PC Andrew Innes told the court that he had had worked out time and distance calculations, and had been told that the accused had said to police that she had noticed the car coming, and thought she had time to exit the junction.

The officer said in his report that there had been evidence of aggressive driving by the accident victim, including tailgating and unsafe overtaking.

But he also said Dalglish should not have pulled out from that spot if there was a car in sight.