A young woman wept as she told how a car being driven by the then chief constable of Fife ploughed into her head-on, leaving her badly injured.
Hannah Shedden (25) told Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court that Norma Graham was driving on the wrong side of the road when the two vehicles collided.
The physiotherapist suffered a broken collar bone and required surgery to her knee following the crash on February 7 last year and was off work for four months.
Graham (50), who retired from her £120,000 a year post in August on a full pension, has denied careless driving before the crash and is standing trial.
It is thought to be the first time in Scottish legal history that a serving chief constable has been cited as an accused person in court.
Her defence is arguing that the accident was caused by black ice on the road but an expert in accident investigations told the court it was more likely to have been caused by an “unknown driver error”.
The trial got off to a controversial start, when Graham’s solicitor Colin Simpson turned up late and was warned by Sheriff Grant McCulloch he could be held in contempt.
“It’s outrageous. It’s a gross discourtesy to the court and I’m not sure an apology is enough,” the sheriff said.
Once proceedings were under way, Miss Shedden said she was only seconds into her journey to work in Skinflats, near Falkirk, from her parents’ house near Kinglassie when she saw Graham’s dark blue Audi heading straight towards her.
“Originally I thought it was trying to avoid something like a cyclist but it kept coming over,” she said. “It pulled out and headed square on towards me.”
When shown a photograph of her badly damaged Renault Clio, Miss Shedden burst into tears.
Fife police accident investigator PC Colin Morrison said he had found ice about 100m from the accident scene on Graham’s side of the road.
He said the Audi could have skidded on the ice and the car’s electronic stability system could have over-corrected the skid. He added: “It could have been ice. It could just as easily have been inattention.”
His report was reviewed by PC Alistair Bain, a collision investigator, who said it was unlikely the ice caused the crash. PC Bain’s view was that ice formed after the crash by water dripping from stationary vehicles waiting to get past.
It was more likely that Graham had taken longer than expected to react or had not applied full emergency braking, or she was travelling speeding. He concluded the crash was caused by “unknown driver error” due to a combination of the three.
Graham denies driving without due care and attention and without reasonable consideration on February 7 2012 on the B922 Cluny to Kinglassie road.
She further denies failing to keep the vehicle under proper control, causing it to collide with a Clio driven by Hannah Shedden, damaging both vehicles and injuring both women.
The case will continue on May 1.