An exhausted night shift worker fell asleep at the wheel and flipped his car on a remote country road.
Gavin McArthur was told he was lucky to have survived the smash near Tibbermore, on the outskirts of Perth.
The city’s sheriff court heard he was so tired he could barely stay awake as he was spoken to by emergency service crews.
McArthur, 31, admitted a charge of dangerous driving by falling asleep and losing control of his Renault Captur on Old Gallow’s Road, causing it to overturn.
He was banned from the road for more than two years.
‘Totally exhausted’
Fiscal depute Andrew Harding told the court: “At about 7.20am on October 8, last year, police received a call from a member of the public about a vehicle which had overturned.
“Police attended at the site near Tibbermore and traced the vehicle and the accused.”
Mr Harding said: “It was observed that the car had struck a verge, travelled on for about 10 metres and come to rest on its side.
“The accused confirmed to officers that he was the driver.
“He said that he was working and that he needed his bed.
“It was clear that he was totally exhausted.
“He struggled to keep his eyes open when talking to police.”
McArthur told officers he had been driving home from late shift at work.
“He noted that he must have dozed off at the wheel, causing his car for hit the roadside verge,” said Mr Harding.
A lucky man
Solicitor Paul Ralph said: “He knows he’s a lucky man to have walked away from this.”
Sheriff Gillian Wade interjected: “He’s a lucky man? I think members of the public were lucky too.”
Mr Ralph said his client had struggled during lockdowns but now has a new job and is “much more settled.”
Sheriff Wade told McArthur: “I accept that those were difficult circumstances but they were difficult for everyone.
“You were not just risking your own life here, you were also risking the lives of other road users.
“It was fortunate that the circumstances of this was not more serious.
“The courts often see incidents like this with far more tragic outcomes.”
She said: “I feel that this is at the higher level of dangerous driving on a summary level.”
McArthur, of Primrose Terrace, was banned from the road for 27 months and ordered to carry out 225 hours of unpaid.
He was told the sentence was a direct alternative to custody.
