A heroin-fuelled dangerous driver has dodged a jail sentence after “carnage” was narrowly avoided when he careered into a blue-light emergency patient convoy on a busy Angus road.
Traffic on the coastal A92 between Montrose and Arbroath last August pulled over to clear a path for a Coastguard and police ambulance escort.
However, Lewis Forbes failed to spot the emergency vehicles and hit one of them, as well as a car in the line of stationary traffic.
The 31-year-old was foaming at the mouth when he stepped from his Audi after the crash and has been told by a sheriff his driving could have had a catastrophic outcome.
At Forfar Sheriff Court, he pled guilty to driving dangerously and under the influence on the A92 near Dunninald on August 20 last year and was handed a lengthy ban.
The court heard Forbes had lost his girlfriend in a fatal road accident when he appeared for sentence before Sheriff Derek Reekie.
Depute fiscal Laura McGillvery said Coastguard and police vehicles, with lights and sirens on, were to the front and rear of an ambulance bound for Ninewells Hospital in Dundee at around 4.30pm.
Near the junction with Dunninald, several northbound vehicles slowed to allow the emergency vehicles to pass safely.
The fiscal said: “The Audi being driven at speed by the accused was seen to swerve into the southbound carriageway to avoid them. It struck the side of the Coastguard Nissan Navara before colliding with one of the cars in the queue.”
The following police car saw the crash and when Forbes got out of his badly damaged vehicle, his speech was slurred and his behaviour appeared erratic.
A blood test at Dundee police HQ confirmed the presence of controlled drugs in his system.
Defence solicitor Nick Markwoski said: “He is obviously aware his liberty is at risk.
“At the time of the incident he had suffered a relapse in tackling drug difficulties and had consumed heroin.
“His girlfriend was involved in a road accident on the outskirts of Brechin and sadly passed away.”
Sheriff Reekie told Forbes: “This is a very serious matter. There could have been carnage here and there was the interference with someone being taken to hospital in an emergency situation.
“You should never have been on the road in the first place and you should never have been driving in the way you were driving.
“I’ve had to give very serious consideration to a custodial sentence.”
He placed Forbes, of Provost Reid Road, Montrose on a ten-month tagging order confining him to his home from 7pm to 7am, daily and imposed an 18-month Community Payback Order with supervision.
The accused was also banned for three years and must sit an extended driving test before getting his licence back.
