A 20-year-old has narrowly avoided a road ban after he was caught driving while tired between Dundee and Edinburgh.
Marc McMahon is on a last warning after being seen by other motorists driving erratically on the A90 and M90 before being pulled over by police on the south side of the Queensferry Crossing.
Dunfermline Sheriff Court heard he had been travelling in the early hours at speeds of between 40-50mph, and at other times as low as 20-30mph as a “precaution”.
Procurator fiscal depute Laurelle Johnstone said witnesses spotted McMahon speeding up and braking “for no apparent reason” and swerving into the other lane of the dual carriageway on the A90 near Kinfauns, Perth.
Police were contacted and officers located McMahon’s vehicle about 30 minutes later on the M90 north of the Queensferry Crossing.
Pulled over after Crossing
The fiscal depute said: “Officers followed the vehicle for a short time and stated he was driving between 40mph and 50mph at the time and had swerved across the road using both lanes of the carriageway.
“They stopped the vehicle, pulled him over and he said to officers he was tired and felt like he would fall asleep”.
McMahon, of Dundee’s Albany Terrace, appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court to admit a careless driving charge.
Court papers stated he drove in an erratic manner, repeatedly accelerated and braked abruptly, crossed over the white line road markings, swerved in the roadway and failed to maintain lane discipline.
The incident happened on May 10 last year.
‘He was going to fall asleep’
Defence lawyer Calum Harris said McMahon had been driving from Dundee to the Scottish Agricultural College in Edinburgh late on a Sunday night and had not been feeling well.
The solicitor said it was clear from witnesses and police he “did take some precaution by driving at low speed” of 40-50mph and at other times as low as 20-30mph on roads with a much higher limit.
Mr Harris said: “By the time he was approached by police he had just crossed over the Queensferry Crossing and was pulling over or trying to pull into the first exit on the left as you come over.
“At that point it had come to the stage he could no longer control his driving.
“He was going to fall asleep.
“He realises he should not have been driving and once he did start driving and it was clear he was tired, that the sensible decision, rather than to slow down would have been to pull over wherever possible, even if it was the hard shoulder but he felt that was inappropriate.”
Mr Harris said his client has since left college and secured full time employment – due to start in two weeks – as an automatic door engineer.
The solicitor said McMahon will be working alone and a driving licence is “essential” for the job.
Banned if he offends again
Sheriff Charles Macnair told McMahon: “Driving while you are falling asleep is extremely dangerous and this is at the high end of a Section 3 (of the Road Traffic Act 1988).
“It’s by the narrowest of margins I am not disqualifying you.”
The sheriff fined McMahon £675 and his licence was endorsed with eight penalty points.
Sheriff Macnair added: “That means any future driving offence will result in disqualification”.
