A cocaine-fuelled Angus electrical engineer, who caused catastrophic injuries to a motorist in a crash, has been jailed.
Alistair Birse shunted Kirsty Stewart’s car down an embankment while he was almost three times over the drug-drive limit on the A932 Arbroath to Forfar road, near Milldens.
Ms Stewart had to be cut from her car and was taken to the major trauma unit and treated for a fractured sternum and damaged lung.
She spent six days in hospital and required a drain insert after medical staff found blood in her right chest cavity.
Birse, 30, of Gowanbank, near Forfar, was already disqualified for dangerous driving when he admitted the same offence at Dundee Sheriff Court last month.
He admitted causing the serious injuries on August 14 in 2021 and has now been jailed for 13 months and banned for five-and-a-half years.
The crash
Fiscal depute Lynne Mannion previously told the court Birse crossed onto the wrong side of the carriageway on a bend and collided with Ms Stewart’s car.
He spun 180 degrees and came to rest on the road as the other vehicle slid down an embankment.
Birse got out to help an told emergency services when they arrived to free Ms Stewart: “It wasn’t her fault… 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 with a reading of 137 mics of benzoylecgonine – a metabolite of cocaine – per litre of blood, above the legal limit of 50.
Defence solicitor Brian Bell said: “The accused narrowly crossed the lane.
“This wasn’t a full-on (crash) on the other side of the road.
“My submission today is the nature of the actual driving itself is at the lower end of dangerous – arguably careless.
“What makes it dangerous is the consumption of drugs.
“He accepts, being familiar with the road, that that’s the only explanation.
“There’s no indication of excessive speed, no suggestion he was using his mobile phone or anything else.
“When the police arrived, he accepted full responsibility. He went to assist.
“”There’s genuine remorse for the consequences of his driving.”
Second offence
It is Birse’s second driving ban this year.
He was placed on a community payback order at Forfar Sheriff Court in January for dangerous driving when he overtook an unmarked police car, then collided with a marked one.
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