A Fife man who caused a three-car crash which left five people injured has been found guilty of careless driving.
Mark Taylor was standing trial accused of dangerous driving but was convicted of the alternative charge at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court.
The 45-year-old was banned from driving for 12 months and given a £500 fine following a lengthy trial into the August 2016 incident.
The court was told Taylor’s BMW had “drifted” into the opposing carriageway on the B921 Kinglassie to Cardenden Road.
His vehicle clipped a Jaguar car which had come around the bend, sending it into an arch before it came to rest on the opposite side of the road.
A further collision occurred just seconds later when a third vehicle, a Citroen C2, crashed into Taylor’s car.
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The now disqualified driver was left with potentially “life-threatening injuries” and was airlifted to hospital. The two other occupants of his vehicle were uninjured.
The 75-year-old driver of the Jaguar was left with minor injuries while the woman behind the wheel of the Citroen had to be cut free from the wreck.
She suffered serious injuries, as did a seven-year-old girl who was a back seat passenger in the car. A third passenger was also hurt.
Taylor, of Redcraigs, Kirkcaldy, claimed the Jaguar had been on the wrong side of the road when the collision happened but Sheriff James MacDonald said he did not accept that evidence.
Defence solicitor Iain McCafferty said his client had previous road traffic convictions, but none were for directly analogous matters.
Sheriff MacDonald said: “No penalty I can impose will reflect the impact that this matter undoubtedly has had on anyone that was involved, which of course includes you.
“There is nothing Mr Taylor could have done to avoid colliding with the Citroen.”
He added that the manner of Taylor’s driving did not meet the threshold of dangerous driving, but that it had been careless to the extent that it was not in keeping with a “competent and careful driver”.
The sheriff said he believed the collision had probably been caused by an “inexplicable momentary lapse of steering control or attention” by Taylor.
