A motorist who killed an 86-year-old and badly injured her children has been spared jail after a sheriff said the tragedy was due to “a moment’s distraction”.
Andrew Turner, 52, lost control of his VW Golf and ploughed into an oncoming Mercedes carrying the woman, Geraldine Hodge, on the A82 near the Falls of Falloch in west Perthshire.
The accident occurred in June last year, as Turner was driving home from work.
The Mercedes was being driven towards Oban by Mrs Hodge’s son Mark Hodge, 52.
Her daughter Theresa Hodge was in the rear offside passenger seat.
As they approached a sweeping bend, Turner’s Golf came round the corner towards them and crossed on to the wrong side of the road, hitting the side of the Mercedes.
A van driver pulled Turner from the wreckage.
Firefighters and paramedics attended and an air ambulance was scrambled to the scene.
Mrs Hodge’s body had to be freed from the Mercedes by firemen.
Mrs Hodge, of Bournemouth, who was suffering from the effects of a recent stroke, died from multiple injuries.
Turner was airlifted to the Royal Alexandria Hospital in Paisley with a fractured spine.
Theresa Hodge, now 55, suffered a collapsed lung and a fractured left leg, vertebrae and pelvis.
Mr Hodge sustained cuts, bruising and a broken thumb.
Turner, of Balloch, West Dunbartonshire, pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving and using a car with a defective tyre.
Sheriff Wyllie Robertson ordered Turner to perform 250 hours of unpaid work as part of a community payback order, fined him £400 and disqualified him from driving for two years.
He told Turner: “Cases of this nature are very difficult cases for the court to sentence upon. Sentences involving dangerous driving are much easier to sentence upon.
“The Crown have accepted that this incident was the product of a momentary distraction.”