Butcher workers hurt in horror car smash
Five employees at award-winning Simon Howie’s butchery business were injured - four seriously - after a smash on a country road near Perth.
It led to driver Tomasz Szczepanski, of Cara Place, North Muirton, being fined £1000 - and banned from driving for 14 months - after pleading guilty to dangerous driving at Perth Sheriff Court.
The horror crash took place on the B9112 Perth-Forteviot road, near Aberdalgie, on December 6 last year when he failed to negotiate a left-hand bend.
The 36-year-old then lost control of his silver Audi A4 and struck the wall.
Depute fiscal Tina Dickie told the court the accident took place about 8.20pm as he drove west.
All of the passengers were employed at the butchery business and they were friends.
The car left the road and collided head-on with a stone wall on the other side of the road.
“The police attended, as did the ambulance,” explained the fiscal.
“The accused - and all parties - were conveyed to Ninewells Hospital and the vehicle was extensively damaged.”
Those injured were: Roman Czarnecki (broken spine and was admitted to hospital);Wojtek Teodorczyk (broken jaw, left arm and collarbone and bone displaced in neck); ZofiaWisniewska (fractured right hip which required surgery); and Edyta Krol (broken left arm, cracked hip and injury to left knee).
A solicitor for the accused said they were all employed at Simon Howie’s premises at Dunning. They worked night shift and back shift and had taken an alternative route as there was congestion on the A9.
The solicitor added:“It’s a road he’s unfamiliar with. He accepts his standard of driving fell below the standard of a careful and competent driver.”
Despite suffering two displaced bones at the base of his spine, he helped his injured passengers.
A first offender, he had a clean driving licence, the lawyer described it as“an isolated incident.”
Imposing the hefty fine and ban, Sheriff Keith O’Mahony told Sczepanski: “The consequences of your driving were clearly significant. I am not persuaded to deal with this without disqualifying you.”