A coked-up Angus engineer shunted another motorist down an embankment while almost three times over the drug-drive limit.
Alistair Birse left his victim with “potentially life-threatening” injuries when he crossed the carriageway on the A932 and sent her car off the road.
The father-of-one admitted to police he was at fault and failed a drug swipe.
Kirsty Stewart, who was driving the vehicle he struck, had to be cut from her car.
She was taken to the major trauma unit and treated for a fractured sternum and damaged lung.
She required a drain insert after medical staff found blood in her right chest cavity.
30-year-old Birse is already disqualified for another instance of dangerous driving, which he admitted earlier this year.
A sheriff told him to get his affairs in order ahead of sentencing with imprisonment being most likely.
Crash
Birse pled guilty to causing the serious injuries on August 14 in 2021 by driving dangerously.
Fiscal depute Lynne Mannion told Dundee Sheriff Court Birse was employed as an electrical engineer at the time of the crash.
At around 7.05pm, Ms Stewart was travelling on the A932 near Milldens.
She approached a right-hand bend, which turned into a left-hand bend and met the accused coming in the opposite direction.
Birse had crossed onto her side of the carriageway and their vehicles collided.
He spun 180 degrees and came to rest on the road, as Ms Stewart’s vehicle slid down an embankment.
Birse got out to help her but she had to be cut from the car.
Emergency services arrived and Birse told police: “It wasn’t her fault.”
He added: “I was on the wrong side of the road.”
Police breathalysed him and found no alcohol in his system but a drug swipe came back positive.
Birse returned a reading of 137 mics of benzoylecgonine – a metabolite of cocaine – per litre of blood, above the legal limit of 50.
Ms Stewart was not released from hospital until August 20.
Jail warning
Birse, of Mossie Way in Gowanbank, near Forfar is currently working as a car cleaner.
He was placed on a community payback order at Forfar Sheriff Court in January for dangerous driving – he dangerously overtook an unmarked police car then collided with a marked one – and has already completed the 100 hours of unpaid work ordered.
Sheriff Paul Brown deferred sentencing for reports and continued bail.
He said: “You’re disqualified in relation to this ad interim.
“You should put your personal affairs in order for the next time.
“Imprisonment will be at the forefront of my mind.”
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