A young off-road motorbike rider was taken to hospital in a critical condition after crashing into metal railings on a Dunfermline footpath.
Apprentice joiner Thomas Reynolds was left with multiple fractures – including to his neck – and a brain injury after the collision on the path at South Larch Road on November 25 last year.
The 21-year-old, of Woodmill Crescent, Dunfermline, appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court to plead guilty to careless driving and driving the unregistered bike without insurance.
He admitted driving at excessive speed on a footpath and failing to maintain proper control of the bike, whereby he collided with the railings and was seriously injured.
Prosecutor Lauren Pennycook told the court dog walkers saw the motorbike being ridden at speed on the footpath before it collided with railings and Reynolds fell off.
The fiscal depute said: “He was then taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary due to his condition being deemed critical.
“Police attended and found the railings to be bent and a number of individual posts of the metal railings to be broken”.
Ms Pennycook said the front of the bike had become detached from the rest.
The fiscal said Reynolds suffered a fracture to his neck, pelvic fractures, eight broken ribs on his right side, blood in his right lung, bruising to his left lung and a brain injury.
Disqualified and fined
Defence lawyer Alexander Flett said the vehicle was an off-road bike and was not being used on the road.
He said the expansion of Dunfermline meant what had been a farm track previously is now a footpath.
Reynolds had not appreciated that would constitute a public place and the bike could not be used there.
Mr Flett said the Reynolds’ helmet came off in the course of the collision.
The lawyer said Reynolds has made a recovery but had the consequences of the brain injury for some time and was unfit to work.
He said his client could lose his job if he is disqualified from driving, as apprentices are required to drive vans.
Sheriff Susan Duff gave Reynolds six penalty points, leading to a disqualification due to existing points on his licence.
The length of the ban was not specified in court but is a minimum of six months.
Also fining him £150, she said: “Hopefully you have learned how fragile your own life is”.
Reynolds replied: “Yeah”.
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