A Glenrothes man has been allowed to keep his driving licence despite causing a crash in which a toddler and 18-day old baby were injured.
Liam Mitchell rounded a bend on the wrong side of the B930 at Levenmouth and his Ford Fiesta clipped a family’s Ford Mondeo.
A passenger in his own car was left with a spinal fracture.
Lawyers for the speeding 21-year-old said blame for the accident lay – in part – with a lack of signage indicating a sharp bend.
Devastating crash
Fiscal depute Eve McKaig told the Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court Mitchell was driving between Methil and Buckhaven on the morning of July 31 2020.
She said: “As he approached the bend (the other driver) saw the accused’s vehicle drive towards him on the wrong side of the road.
“The accused tried to slow down and continually pressed his brakes but the vehicle would not slow down.
“They saw the vehicle approach them at speed and collide with their front side.
“The vehicle came to a stop across both carriageways, side on.”
Mitchell was left with a bloody nose after airbags in his car deployed.
After the crash he was heard on the phone telling someone he had just had his brakes replaced.
A two-year-old boy suffered a head injury in the crash, while a newborn baby suffered bruising from her car seat.
Mitchell’s passenger suffered a fracture of a vertebrae in her lower back.
They were all treated in Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Hospital.
Road layout blamed
Advocate Rosalyn McTaggart, defending, said: “It undoubtedly would have been a traumatic incident for everybody involved – that fact is not lost on Mr Mitchell.”
She said “deficiencies” in the road, as well as in her client’s driving, contributed.
“Taking firstly the peculiarities of the road – the road was a 45 degree deviation at this point.
“It’s a fairly extreme bend in a country road setting.
“There’s reference (in a specialist report) to a lack of warning signage – there’s only broken lines with short gaps at this point but there’s no signs or chevrons.
“There’s a number of safety signs that could be placed.”
She said the area had been the site of a number of collisions, which had led local farmers to give up on repairing their fences.
Ms McTaggart also highlighted Mitchell’s “inexperience” as a driver – at the time of the crash he had only been driving for 16 months.
“He did not know the road.
“He was somewhat lost and taking the directions of his passenger.
“Mr Mitchell has been driving since this date with no further incidents.”
‘Horrible accident’
Mitchell, of Sythrum Crescent, Glenrothes, was initially charged with causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
However, a plea of guilty to driving carelessly on the B930, which runs between Percival Road to Standing Stane Road, Methil, was accepted instead.
A plea of not guilty to behaving in a threatening and abusive manner was accepted by the Crown.
Sheriff Alison McKay told him: “The court expresses sympathy for those injured but the only thing I can take into account is your level of carelessness, not the outcome.
“You were driving too fast.
“I have to say, notwithstanding, this must have been a horrible accident for those involved.”
Mitchell was given five penalty points after the court was told that losing his licence would affect his job as a welder and fabricator.
He was also fined £1,675.
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