An impatient motorist drove the wrong way up a motorway slip road after refusing to wait in queuing traffic.
Lesley Hunter forced other motorists to dodge her vehicle as she turned around on the M90’s Halbeath slip road, outside Dunfermline.
The 48-year-old reversed her Nissan Note along chevrons separating the slip from the main carriageway before turning and driving head on into cars heading to join the motorway.
Dunfermline Sheriff Court heard that the tailbacks had been caused by a crash further along the south-bound carriageway of the M90.
Crossed into the chevrons
Fiscal depute Azrah Yousaf said: “It was around 12.50pm and the M90 had backed up due to a road traffic collision. It was backed up to junction 4 at Kelty.
“The accused was travelling towards Edinburgh. She entered the slip road to enter the motorway and saw there was a huge line of traffic.
“She seemed to bring her vehicle to a stop and other vehicles had to take evasive action to avoid a collision.
“She was then seen to enter the chevroned area on the slip road and reverse the wrong way before stopping.
“She entered the chevrons again and was seen to manoeuvre her vehicle so she was facing oncoming traffic entering the slip road.
“She rejoined traffic coming to Dunfermline.
“This was all caught on CCTV – she was one of two people seen (to do the same) on this day.”
She said the previous driver had received a fine and seven penalty points.
Impatient and drove wrong way on slip
Solicitor Alexander Flett, defending, said pharmacy worker Hunter was concerned about her son’s welfare while he was studying in England at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
He said: “She accepts she should not have done what she did.
“She was very stressed because of her personal circumstances.
“She saw that traffic was at a standstill. The other driver carried out the manoeuvre and she did the same thing.”
He added that the “evasive action” taken by other drivers when Hunter had slowed down amounted to driving around her “in much the same way as if she had broken down”.
10 points on licence
Calling it an “undoubtedly reckless manoeuvre”, Sheriff Pino di Emidio told Hunter: “It’s somewhat remarkable to have two offences in almost identical circumstances come before me.
“They occurred on the same day, more or less at the same time and I propose to deal with them comparatively.”
He fined her £400 and imposed seven penalty points on her licence. As Hunter already had three points from a 2019 speeding offence, she is just two points away from losing her licence under the totting up process.
Charges
Hunter, of Swift Street, Dunfermline, admitted driving carelessly on the M90 Halbeath sliproad on March 8 last year by repeatedly stopping when it was unsafe to do so, causing other motorists to take evasive action.
She then failed to comply with the road markings, reversed the wrong way up the slip road before driving the wrong way into the face of oncoming traffic.
