Brechin man admits careless driving in a combine harvester

A farm worker has admitted carelessly driving a combine harvester, leading to a horse rider being thrown from her spooked mount.

Despite the woman’s husband and son warning 69-year-old James Edwards to slow down, he ploughed on along the single track rural road near Forfar, causing the frightened animal to rear up before it took flight, riderless, for about half a mile.

Edwards, of Southesk Street, Brechin, appeared at Forfar Sheriff Court on Tuesday where he had been due to face a dangerous driving trial, but admitted a charge of driving the combine harvester carelessly on Meadows Road, Battledykes, on September 8, failing to stop for pedestrians walking on the road and a person riding a horse, causing it to unseat its rider who landed on the ground.

Sheriff Peter Paterson told Edwards he viewed the offence as being at the medium range of careless driving.

“It seems more than a simple error of judgment,” he said. “You have clearly worked on the farm for a number of years and would know that horses are unpredictable, and should have stopped.”

He fined Edwards £350 and imposed six penalty points on his licence.