The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Man drove the wrong way in fast lane of A9 after following satnav
Drivers tell of having to take evasive action and northbound traffic being brought to a standstill
A motorist has been found guilty of driving dangerously because he followed his satnav system and ended up driving on the wrong side of a dual carriageway.
Hamish Wedderspoon, 85, continued driving in the fast lane of the A9 for a mile as oncoming drivers were forced to swerve out of his way.
Wedderspoon, who invented a car window heating system, was banned from driving for three years and fined £5,000 at Perth Sheriff Court.
The trial heard how the incident only came to an end when numerous other drivers stopped and managed to bring traffic on the northbound A9 to a standstill.
Sheriff James Macdonald said: “This was in any view a serious instance of bad driving.
“The standard of driving causes concern for public safety. I do not regard the level of dangerousness to be in any way borderline.
“This incident happened because the accused chose to follow a direction given by the satnav in the vehicle, over the obvious view of the road layout which he had.
“There was a decision to adhere to a computerised instruction in preference to the road layout. The accused was in a state of disorientation on this journey.
“He continued along the road despite other vehicles flashing their lights at him. There was a state of generalised distraction caused by him not knowing where he was.”
Witness Thomas Brodie told the court he was driving north at 70mph when he became aware of Wedderspoon’s 19-year-old VW Golf heading straight at him.
He thought Wedderspoon was driving at up to 50mph and ignoring other cars.
Mr Brodie said he “braked harder than he had ever done before” and swerved out of Wedderspoon’s way.
Sheriff Macdonald paid tribute to Mr Brodie’s skill in keeping control of his car and noted that he was still in shock several hours later.
“The accused made no attempt to stop or divert from that trajectory but instead continued along the northbound carriageway,” the sheriff said.
“The northbound traffic in its entirety came to a halt.”
Wedderspoon said his driving was careless, and came about when he took a wrong exit from the Broxden roundabout as he was heading to Glasgow.
He denied his driving had been dangerous. However, he was found guilty. The sheriff noted that Wedderspoon had also ignored road signs clearly informing drivers not to enter the road the way he had done at the Tibbermore junction near Perth.
Wedderspoon, of Somersall Lane, Chesterfield, was found guilty of dangerous driving on the A9 on May 11 last year.
He was ordered to resit the extended driving test before returning to the road.