A Fife driver lost control of his car on a bend and struck a stone wall, splitting the vehicle in two and leaving himself and three passengers with serious injuries.
Grant Moffat drove the car dangerously before the collision on the A955 road near East Wemyss on the evening of October 1 2023.
Moffat ended up in hospital for about a month and his partner and two other friends in the car suffered multiple broken bones.
A trauma team and air ambulance were deployed to the horrific smash, Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard.
Moffat appeared in the dock to plead guilty to causing serious injury to three people by dangerous driving.
He drove at excessive speed, failed to negotiate a bend in the road and lost control of the vehicle, causing it to leave the road and collide with a stone wall.
Sheriff Krista Johnston told him: “This is clearly a very serious matter.”
Car ‘split in two’
Prosecutor Sarah Smith told the court Moffat was driving at around 9pm with a friend in the passenger seat and his partner and another female friend in the back.
He hit between 60 and 70mph on a 40mph section of the A915 road between Methil and Kirkcaldy, then drove the full length of the Standing Stane Road and into Dysart, turning onto the A955 and headed towards Wemyss.
Moffat stopped his vehicle, revved the engine, then released the brake and “accelerated harshly in first, second and third gears”, causing the wheels to spin and the engine to make a “loud screaming noise”.
He approached a left-hand bend at excessive speed, causing the back of the car to fishtail, then start “spinning anticlockwise,” the fiscal said.
Other motorists travelling in the opposite carriageway saw Moffat’s car coming round the bend towards them at speed.
The fiscal depute said Moffat’s car span off the road and collided with the gable end of a stone wall.
The vehicle “split in two” before “rolling in mid-air” and coming to rest on the west side of the wall.
Ms Smith said: “The front of the vehicle was upside down with the remainder of the vehicle upright.”
Horrific injuries
The court heard the male front seat passenger managed to get out and the two back seat passengers and Moffat were trapped in their seats.
Paramedics were called, along with a trauma team, air ambulance, the fire service and police.
It took about two hours to cut them all free from the wreckage and they were taken to hospital by road and air.
The front seat passenger suffered breaks to his leg and pelvis and severe bruising to both ankles and underwent surgery.
He was given medication for 12 weeks in relation to a clot in one of the veins in his pelvis.
Moffat’s partner suffered fractures to her pelvis, the base of the spine, and a dislocated elbow, which “may never straighten again”.
Wounds above her eyebrow and on her forehead were closed with sutures and she has scarring.
The other passenger suffered a fracture to her right ankle and torn ligaments and tendons on the right leg and underwent surgery that night.
She had a second operation in February last year to have pins removed from her foot.
‘Extremely remorseful’
Moffat suffered a laceration to the back of his head, bruising on the brain, fractured vertebrae in the neck, two fractures on the right eye socket, and fractures to bones in both legs, feet and ankles.
His head wound was closed with 15 stitches.
He underwent surgery on October 3 and remained unconscious and intubated until October 19 2023.
He was discharged from the intensive care unit and moved to a major trauma ward, where he remained until his discharge from hospital on November 2 that year.
Defence lawyer Elizabeth Dryburgh said Moffat, of Woodlands Crescent, Leven, is a young man who is “extremely remorseful”.
The solicitor said he remains in a relationship with his partner.
Sheriff Johnston deferred sentencing to Dunfermline Sheriff Court on May 7 to obtain background reports and Moffat’s bail has been continued meantime.
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