A viscount’s daughter-in-law has been ordered to carry out unpaid work in the community after causing the death of a pensioner by driving carelessly.
Emily Arbuthnott, 37, knocked down James Lyall while he was walking across the road in front of her car at a zebra crossing leaving him seriously injured.
Mr Lyall was initially treated at the scene before he was rushed to hospital in an ambulance under police escort, but later died.
The mother-of-three was on the school run when the tragedy happened in Inverbervie in Angus shortly after 3pm on November 5, 2014.
She did not see the 82-year-old crossing the road because her vision was temporarily blinded by the low level sun.
Arbuthnott, who married Christopher, the son of the 17th Viscount of Arbuthnott in April 2003, admitted causing the pensioner’s death when she appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court last month.
She failed to slow down or stop the Audi, the vehicle she was driving, when the sun reduced her visibility.
At court on Monday, fiscal depute David Bernard said other drivers interviewed following the accident informed investigating officers that the sun had obscured their vision.
He said one of the witnesses saw the car collide with Mr Lyall who was flung on to the bonnet of the car then hit the windscreen.
The court heard Arbuthnott was hysterical when she realised what had happened and kept repeating to other witnesses that she hadn’t seen the pensioner on the road.
Defence lawyer Iain Hingston said his client felt no self-pity and a sense of overwhelming guilt.
He said the freelance journalist had effectively punished herself by withdrawing from the community because she didn’t want to remind anyone that she was responsible for the tragedy.
Mr Hingston said Mr Lyall was in no way to blame for the accident and his client had accepted sole responsibility for his death.
He added: “She wishes for me to express her profound and indeed sincere apologies to the family and friends of Mr Lyall, to say that if she could do anything to turn back the clock, she would.”
Sheriff Graeme Buchanan said “a prison sentence would not be appropriate in this case for a variety of reasons”.
He ordered Arbuthnott to carry out 210 hours of unpaid work in the community and banned her from the road for 15 months.
