A man accused of dangerous driving broke down in court yesterday as he recounted the catastrophic Angus glens car crash that left his close friend paralysed for life.
In his tearful testimony to a jury at Forfar, Robert Buzalski told how he thinks ‘every day’ of the events of August 2013 when the car he was driving while one and a half times the legal limit plunged into a ravine on a twisting farm road near Edzell.
Buzalski, from Poland, suffered four broken ribs in the crash, but his friend and rear-seat passenger Krysztof Birula’s back was broken as the Hyundai rolled into the gorge, leaving him confined to a wheelchair and requiring a lifetime of care in his homeland.
The accused took the stand in the closing stages of the trial yesterday and could not contain his emotions as he spoke about the crash, after he, Mr Birula and co-worker Marcin Kopij had decided to go to Edzell having drunk 30% vodka liqueur.
In answer to questioning by his solicitor, Brian Bell, 36-year-old digger operator Buzalski said he had been celebrating his forthcoming wedding with his two friends at a new cottage they had arrived at that day. Their intention was to drive to the end of the farm road at Dalbog, near Edzell, and then call for a taxi into the village.
The trial earlier heard how firefighters had to cut Mr Birula free from the wrecked hire car after it came to rest in a river after Buzalski failed to negotiate a tight left-hand bend leading on to a bridge around 10pm.
Buzalski told Mr Bell he accepted he should not have been driving after drinking the vodka, but said he “felt fine.”
When asked if he bitterly regretted driving the car, the accused, through tears, told the court: “I think about it every day, it’s very hard.
“I ask myself every evening, why did it have to happen?”
He added: “He (Birula) was a friend, close friends, you could say. Any time I can go and visit him, I try to support him. When I can’t go to visit him, I call him.”
He said he had looked at the speedometer of the car just before the bend and it was sitting just above 20mph.
“I just misjudged the corner,” said Buzalski.
Summing up the Crown case, depute fiscal Joanne Smith said: “The way he (Buzalski) drove falls far below what would be expected of a careful and competent driver, and it would be obvious to a careful and competent driver that driving in that way would be dangerous.”
Mr Bell, in his speech, said his client could not escape the fact he was over the legal limit, or the outcome for Mr Birula, whose life had been “unbelievably affected” by the incident.
“There is no doubt that the car went out of control and there’s no doubt that Mr Buzalski was at fault for the crash.
“The accused does not seek an acquittal. There are two options: it is either dangerous driving or careless driving.”
The trial is due to resume on Monday, when the jury will be charged by Sheriff Pino Di Emidio before retiring to consider its verdict.