The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Woman’s anger over armoured vehicle crash sentence
Sheriff tells ex-corporal he is too old to be banned from the road
A former corporal in the TA who wrote off a Vauxhall Astra after colliding with it in an ex-Army vehicle was spared disqualification yesterday after a sheriff said he was too old to be banned.
Self-employed plumber Robert Shepherd, who was peering through a hatch in the front of his 1954 Alvis Saracen armoured personnel carrier while a pal in the turret acted as “tank commander”, allowed the 11-tonne, Rolls Royce-engined, triple-axled, sixwheeler to veer on to the wrong side of the road on a narrow bridge.
The error, as Shepherd, 68, was bringing the Saracen home from a charity gala, meant there was not enough room for oncoming traffic.
The APC’s wheel arch struck Amanda Ryan’s Vauxhall, as the mother-of-two was trying to cross the bridge over the River Devon near Alva, Clackmannanshire, on her way from her mum’s to her boyfriend’s house.
Miss Ryan, 28, was showered with glass, had to be freed by firemen, and was taken to hospital with back injuries and later suffered a miscarriage.
Sheriff Eric Brown, who fined Shepherd £270 and added three points to his licence on which there were already nine but did not ban him, was not told of Miss Ryan’s injuries or the miscarriage.
Miss Ryan, who suffered muscle damage and expects to need painkillers for the rest of her life, said the decision was “a travesty”.
She said after the case: “I genuinely thought I was going to die and it’s absurd he can just carry on.”
Her car was later written off by insurers, while the Saracen was only slightly damaged.
Alloa Sheriff Court was told this was due to the “disproportionate size and structure” of the two vehicles.
The incident occurred on the B908 near Alva, Clackmannanshire, on a Saturday afternoon last August at about 4.20.
“Overhanging foliage” obscured the view of the “commander”, who therefore did not warn Shepherd about Amanda Ryan’s Astra.
Shepherd, of Tullibody, Clackmannanshire, had been due to face trial yesterday charged with dangerous driving, which he denied, but the prosecution accepted his plea of guilty to the lesser charge of careless driving.