An elderly woman suffered 15 broken bones in a Perthshire road crash that eventually claimed her life.
Eleanor Rosemary Phillip was a passenger in a hire car being driven by her son Peter when William Hutton’s Vauxhall Astra van careered across the A85 and into their path.
Police officers did not believe 81-year-old Mrs Phillip’s injuries which included 13 fractured ribs, a broken breastbone and a broken vertabra were life-threatening but complications caused by osteoporosis resulted in her death in the intensive care unit at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee two days later.
Hutton pleaded guilty to causing Mrs Phillip’s death by driving without due care and attention on the A85 Crianlarich to Perth road, at its junction with Loanleven Farm, on August 2 2014 by driving a vehicle fitted with a tyre that had a tread depth below the legal limit.
Depute fiscal Bill Kermode said the road was wet at the time of the crash. He told the court: “At 7.35pm Peter Phillip, travelling with his mother and son, was driving at about 50mph. He had come round a right-hand bend and approached a right-hand bend when he saw the accused’s Vauxhall Astra car-derived van travelling towards his vehicle. The van appeared to be out of control and so Mr Phillip applied his brakes.
“He saw the Astra van was continuing to slide towards his vehicle, on the wrong side of the road. He could not avoid the van and, consequently, they collided.”
Mrs Phillip was taken to Ninewells Hospital but her condition deteriorated and she died on August 4.
Mr Kermode added that Hutton had told police he was familiar with the road, quoting him as saying: “I drive this road all the time and I know it well. The back end just went out.”
Mr Kermode said police crash investigators had concluded that one possible cause of the crash was Hutton’s bald tyre.
Solicitor David Holmes, defending, said: “He does not seek to minimise the loss and suffering of Mrs Phillip’s family. He profoundly regrets what has taken place.”
He added that witnesses had given statements that the road surface had been “greasy” at the time of the crash and that police did not expect the incident to have a fatal outcome.
Sheriff Lindsay Foulis fined Hutton, of Culdeezland Road, Methven, £2,000 and banned him from driving for two years.
Mrs Phillip’s relatives, who were present in court, declined to comment on the sentence.