A drink-driver who left two teenagers with devastating head injuries after causing a horrific five-vehicle smash on the A90 has been jailed for two years.
Stuart Mackenzie drove at speed into the back of his victims’ car, which had been stopped by roadworks, causing an horrific “domino-like collision”.
The 31-year-old had ignored nine different warning signs and failed to spot that a queue of traffic in front was held up by temporary lights.
He hit the rear of the teenagers’ Volkswagen car, punching them forward into the car in front.
In all, five vehicles were shunted into one another by the brutal force of the nighttime collision.
The 19-year-old driver of the car and his young female passenger were both left trapped and had to be freed by emergency services.
The driver spent ten days in the neurological ward at Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital, while the girl, then 16, suffered a fractured skull.
Further tests revealed a “high energy” injury to her brain, damage to her vertebrae and numerous other broken bones.
As Mackenzie appeared for sentencing in the dock at Perth Sheriff Court, it emerged the accident could have life-long consequences for the girl and her surgeon thought she will suffer “long-term cognitive problems”.
Other motorists were said to have suffered whiplash.
A roadside breath test after the accident showed Mackenzie had 93 microgrammes of alcohol in his system, more than four times the 22 mic legal limit.
He had “drunk substantially” the day before and after a day’s work consumed two more pints.
Mackenzie’s solicitor, David Holmes, said his client had taken the fateful decision to drive because of concerns over childcare but knew he should not have been behind the wheel.
The court was told staff at his former workplace – he is now unemployed as he comes to terms with medical “problems” – had been concerned by the smell of alcohol from him earlier in the day but he had been part of a group they could not pinpoint him as the source.
Mr Holmes said he his client had never shied away from his actions and was “filled with genuine regret” for the consequences.
Mackenzie, of Calder Glen Courts in Airdrie, admitted driving a van dangerously on the A90 between Invergowrie and Longforgan on February 20 last year while impaired by alcohol.
Sheriff Gillian Wade said there was “no alternative” to a prison sentence, highlighting the level of dangerous driving and seriousness of the injuries sustained by his victims”.
She was also highly critical of his “deliberate decision to take a significant amount of alcohol and then drive” and said his failures thereafter were indicative of his ability to drive.
Mackenzie was also banned from driving for five years.
