Driver fined after ‘stupid’ U-turn that caused serious crash

A driver carried out a U-turn on a busy road without making sure the street was clear and caused a crash.

Michael Higney, 23, of Feregait, Kincardine, was on trial at Dunfermline Sheriff Court. He denied that on July 27 last year on the A985 near Kincardine Bridge he drove a car dangerously by carrying out a U-turn manoeuvre when it was unsafe to do so and without prior indication and collided with a vehicle, whereby both vehicles were damaged.

Witness Alexander Dickie, 55, from Motherwell, told the court he was driving to work at Rosyth when the collision occurred.

“I saw a car pulled over to the left, half-on half-off the road,” he said. “He had his left indicator on and I said to my passenger, ‘What the hell is he going to do?’.

“I pulled out into the righthand lane because his car was partly in the left-hand lane. As I was passing, he swung a U-turn and hit my front left wing.

“My car went across the carriageway over the other side of the road and into a ditch.”

Mr Dickie said he was driving his wife’s Alfa Romeo car which was a write-off. He was off work for a week with a neck injury.

Higney said he was going to his work in Grangemouth but roadworks blocked the normal route over the Kincardine Bridge. He said he had simply not seen the car approaching from behind.

Sheriff James MacDonald found Higney guilty of the less serious offence of careless driving as opposed to dangerous driving, telling him: “This was in any view a stupid manoeuvre.”

He added it could have resulted in much more serious injuries. He fined Higney £750 and imposed eight points on his licence.