A motorist who cause a three-car smash in Stirling was “distracted by her interior light”.
Paula McLean – who already had six points on her licence – narrowly escaped a driving ban for her “momentary concentration lapse”, which caused her to drift into the path of an oncoming car.
The 52-year-old of Station Road, Bannockburn, had initially pled to a charge of dangerous driving but after an application by her solicitor, a plea of guilty to a charge of careless driving was accepted in its place.
Stirling Sheriff Court heard the collision happened on Bore Road at around 4pm on August 20 last year.
Fiscal depute Amy Clyne said a witness had been driving in the opposite direction when she noticed McLean’s vehicle in the middle of the road so she sounded her horn.
They crashed, causing her to collide in turn with a car travelling behind McLean.
When police arrived, McLean told them she had been “distracted by her interior light” and had been “looking up at it for too long”.
McLean’s defence agent told the court the nail technician needed her licence to visit elderly clients in their homes and her sister is reliant on the business remaining viable for employment.
Sheriff Mark O’Hanlon handed McLean five penalty points, warning her one more offence could see her lose her licence under the totting-up rules.
Off the rails
A Stirling man who had to be tasered twice after jumping onto train tracks at the railway station was jailed for 140 days. Justin Jefferson was throwing rocks at the platform and buildings of Stirling station and when officers from the British Transport Police were called he refused to come off the lines.
Nightclub assault
A Glasgow man has admitted flooring a man with a single punch at a Stirling nightclub.
Abhay Atwal admitted the attack at Fubar on Maxwell Place on September 10.
The assault caused his victim to fall to the ground to his injury.
Atwal, 21, of Anniesland Crescent, was subject to two bail orders at the time.
He will be sentenced next month.
Drug-driver
Drug-driver Abraham Govan, 56, has been banned from the roads for almost two years after being caught twice in less than 24 hours. He was spotted by witnesses on the A84 near Doune on the evening of August 17 and caught a second time the following afternoon at the Springkerse retail park.
Protest charges
Two Stirling men are among a group accused of staging a protest at Grangemouth refinery last summer.
Anthony Burlett, 34, and Lewis Conroy, 23, will stand trial later this month on multiple charges.
They are alleged to have trespassed at the Ineos site, recklessly climbed a platform and pipeworks and committed a breach of the peace on July 19.
They will appear in the dock alongside Samuel Griffiths, 49, of Walthamstow, Jack Rennie, 31, of Woking, and 38-year-old Gregory Sculthorpe of Doncaster.
Griffiths and Rennie face an additional identical set of charges in relation to alleged action at the site on July 29.
They all deny the charges.
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