A motorist has wound up in the dock after driving into a closed section of the A90 while emergency services were dealing with a bus fire.
Muzafar Chaudhry had been travelling south through Angus when he reached the scene of the serious incident.
Two hours before Chaudhry arrived, 33 passengers on a Citylink service, being operated by Simpson’s, had to be evacuated when their bus caught fire near Brechin.
Flashing cones and waving roadworkers were not enough to alert Chaudhry to the fact the road was closed.
At Forfar Sheriff Court, he was furnished with penalty points and fined.
Road closed
Fiscal depute Jill Drummond explained police, fire and ambulance crews rushed to the northbound carriageway just before 4.50pm in connection with the vehicle fire.
Officers closed the road, setting up a diversion via the B966 junction but this was missed by Chaudhry.
His Mazda 6 was spotted passing an Amey roadworks vehicle and a police car parked behind it, in the overtaking lane.
He then pulled back into the left lane, before police sent him back the way he came.
Two PCs and two Amey workers were on foot near the road at the time, all wearing high-visibility clothing.
35-year-old Chaudhry, of Ibrox Terrace in Glasgow, pled guilty to driving carelessly on the A90 on January 29 last year.
He admitted driving at excessive speed for the road and conditions, failing to keep proper lookout and failing to adhere to road signs, cones with flashing beacons and scene lighting.
Chaudhry also admitted he failed to stop when required to do so at a closure and drove through the closed stretch in close proximity to police and roadworkers.
He had initially been charged with driving dangerously.
His solicitor Judith Hutchison said: “He had approached, he had seen the Amey vehicle which he describes as being a low-loader with cones.
“There were no cones in the outside lane.
“As far as Mr Chaudhry was concerned, the position is that there was an inside lane closure and he’d moved to the outside lane.
“He accepts perhaps that he should have slowed down.
“He did not see people directing him to the slip road.”
‘Confusion’ but ‘upper end of carelessness’
Sheriff Derek Reekie said: “He doesn’t crash through the cones.
“It’s not: ‘I don’t care that the road’s closed, I’m going through.’
“Clearly if you’d thought that this was a road closure, you weren’t going to get anywhere by going through.
“I’m prepared to accept this was some sort of confusion or misjudgement.”
The sheriff said the offence was at the “upper end of carelessness.”
He described £60k-a-year marketing director Chaudhry as “a man of significant means.”
The sheriff imposed six penalty points and fined the first offender £750, plus a £40 victim surcharge.
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