A lorry driver who caused the death of a Dundee pensioner in a horror crash was spared a jail sentence on Friday.
A judge heard that Glenn Craib was devastated following the fatal collision and will never drive lorries again.
Judge John Morris QC told the 46-year-old that in the circumstances of the case he did not consider that a sentence of imprisonment was required.
He told him that if he had been convicted of the offence he originally faced, one of causing death by dangerous driving, he would have been jailed.
Craib’s guilty plea to the lesser charge of causing death by careless driving was accepted by the Crown during an earlier trial.
The judge said that the amount of carelessness shown by Craib, although not minimal, was at the lower end of the scale.
But he added: “You were in charge of an HGV and that being so your responsibility to drive carefully was all the more pressing.”
He ordered Craib, of Cockmuir Place, Elgin, in Moray, to carry out 250 hours unpaid work under a community payback order and imposed a 30-month driving ban on him.
Craib earlier admitted causing the death of Witold Solski, 65, formerly of Balmoral Gardens, Dundee, by driving carelessly on November 25 in 2015.
He was transporting Christmas trees on an HGV and drove from a side road at Nether Careston, in Angus, onto the A90 Dundee to Aberdeen dual carriageway but stopped at the central reservation.
Part of the trailer unit attached to the lorry was left protruding into the outside lane of the northbound carriageway and the Skoda car being driven by Mr Wolski collided with it.
Folllowing the crash Mr Wolski was cut free from the wreckage, but could not be saved. A woman passenger was taken to hospital but was not seriously injured.
Sentence had been deferred on Craib until today for the preparation of a background report following his earlier plea.
The judge told defence counsel Jonathan Crowe at the High Court in Edinburgh: “It is not my intention to send him to prison.”
Mr Crowe told the court: “It appears to have been a very momentary lapse of judgement.”
The defence counsel said that “a comparatively small amount” of the trailer was left encroaching into the northbound carriageway.
He said Craib had been left “absolutely devastated” by events. He added: “He tells me he will never drive a lorry again.”
Mr Crowe said that Craib had come to court expecting to expecting a period of disqualification to be imposed on him as part of the sentence.
