A Tayside police officer who ran a red light and caused a car crash on a blue-light mercy dash for a colleague has held on to her licence.
PC Jennifer Jones was fined £750 and had eight penalty points imposed on her licence at Forfar sheriff court after admitting a charge of driving a police car dangerously and causing the accident in Arbroath town centre in 2014.
Jones was helping another officer get back to his sick child which had been taken to Ninewells accident and emergency when she smashed the marked Ford Focus into a Kia Cee’d driven by Susan Clark on Burnside Drive.
The court heard the Kia was written off after suffering damage valued at £5,000, while the Focus sustained £8,500 worth of damage. Mrs Clark reportedly suffered post-traumatic stress in the wake of the accident.
Jones, 28, from Arbroath had been on duty with fellow PC Charles Demore when his wife called about concerns over their six-week-old tot.
Under blue lights, but without a siren operating, Jones drove her colleague back to Arbroath police office for him to drop off kit before heading towards Monifieth – but only made it 500 yards before crashing into the clerical worker’s car.
The officer drove through three lights on Burnside Drive as they were in sequence – green at Catherine Street, amber turning red at Millgate, and red at Brothock Bridge.
Jones, an officer of six years’ experience, told a special reasons hearing against statutory disqualification that her colleague had been “extremely distressed” in the car and he had agreed when she asked him if it was a blue light situation.
“I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong, I thought I was doing the right thing – I was treating it as an emergency,” she told the court.
She feared she had broken her arm in the crash, but suffered soft tissue damage and whiplash.
Colleagues who rushed to the scene cut her free from her seatbelt after the police car came to rest in the centre of the A92 Burnside Drive dual carriageway.
Police Scotland’s head of road policing training, Inspector Neil McLeod told the hearing that he was of the view the estimated speed of 30 to 35 miles per hour which Jones went through the red light at was “too fast”.
He added: “I can’t think of any occasion where I would want a police vehicle to go through a red traffic light with limited view without a siren on.”
Upholding the special reasons submission against statutory disqualification, Sheriff Murray said he was clear that what constituted an emergency was dependent on the factors and circumstances of the time and he had “no difficulty” in ruling that had been the case on the occasion in question
But he described Jones’ actions as being “very much at the upper end of dangerous driving.”
The sheriff said Jones’ driving had caused physical and potentially significant psychological injury to other parties.
“However, I am also entitled to take into account that you were engaged in something you didn’t expect to happen and, as you said in your own evidence, that you were trying to do your best.”
Jones has remained a serving response officer in Arbroath but her solicitor, Callum Anderson, said Jones may still be the subject of misconduct proceedings after police chiefs consider the outcome of the case.
