A delivery driver has been banned from the road after he admitted causing a three-car smash in a Perth neighbourhood.
Bobby-Jordan Gillies sped along the wrong side of the road on Nimmo Place and into the path of an oncoming car.
In a bid to avoid a head-on smash, the 27-year-old deliberately ploughed his BMW into a parked car at the side of the road.
Perth Sheriff Court heard the crash left Gillies’s motor and two others damaged.
Gillies, of Dupplin Place, Perth, appeared in the dock and pled guilty to driving carelessly, at excessive speed and in the opposing carriageway on June 17 2020.
He was fined £225 and banned from driving for 67 days – despite his lawyer’s plea that the loss of his licence could cost him a new job.
Driver braced for impact
Fiscal depute Andrew Harding told the court that witnesses in Nimmo Place had spotted Gillies’ grey BMW X3 pulling into the street.
“They felt that the vehicle was being driven erratically and at excessive speed,” said the prosecutor.
“They noticed that another BMW was approaching from the opposite direction.
“This other vehicle had to immediately stop. The driver braced herself for a collision.”
Mr Harding said: “However, the accused’s vehicle swerved into a parked vehicle.
“The force of the collision caused this vehicle to move into a second parked vehicle.”
The court heard that Gillies’s car and the vehicle he hit both suffered “extensive” damage.
The third car was “moderately” damaged, said the fiscal depute.
An ‘error of judgment’
Solicitor John McLaughlin, defending, said: “Mr Gillies is a delivery driver, but he has been offered employment with a car firm.
“The company is waiting to hear the outcome of this case. If he maintains his licence, he will get the job.”
The lawyer said: “On this day, he had been to his brother’s home to pick up some clothing.
“He drove into this residential area where cars were parked on one side of the street, effectively turning it into a one-lane road.
“Mr Gillies heard someone shouting. He looked in his rear view mirror, then looked back and saw the other vehicle approaching.
“Reacting in the moment, he pulled to the left into the parked vehicles rather than into a vehicle that contained a driver and passenger.”
Mr McLaughlin said: “This was an error of judgment.”
Significantly careless
Sheriff David Clapham questioned why Gillies was driving at “excessive speed”.
He said: “If I were driving along a residential street and I couldn’t keep to the left because of all the parked cars – and I was forced to go into the wrong side of the road – I would be thinking to myself: I’m going to have a problem if someone comes towards me.
“The last thing I would be doing is driving at an excessive speed.”
Mr McLaughlin said his client had accepted he drove at speed “in the circumstances” and reckoned he was travelling at about 25mph.
The sheriff told Gillies: “I have listened to everything that has been said on your behalf.
“But I have decided I am going to disqualify you from driving, because I feel that the degree of carelessness was significant.”
