Driver given six points

A MUSIC teacher who collided with another car on an ‘accident prone’ bend near Onich was given six penalty points and fined £ 500.

Mark Reynolds had been teaching in Ballachulish Primary on November 3, 2016, when he failed to negotiate a left hand bend on the A82 and caused an accident.

Procurator Fiscal Cat Dalrymple told the court on the morning in question the weather was wet, roads were damp and there was heavy traffic. The incident, which occurred at 11.55am, saw Reynold’s Skoda spin, travel backward into a fence and house, and leave the other car, a Fiat, badly damaged.

As a result, Mr Reynolds suffered fractured ribs, the Fiat driver had tissue damage to her chest and an injured foot, and a passenger experienced soft tissue damage to his chest. Representing himself in Fort William Sheriff Court on Tuesday March 28, Mr Reynolds explained: ‘I had been teaching in Ballachulish Primary. I was not speeding. I know that it is a 40 [speed limit]. I travelled round the bend, trying to correct but could not. In that split second I saw the other car approach.

‘My immediate concern was about the other car, particularly about the lady passenger because she did not look at all well and was in and out of consciousness.’

Mr Reynolds told the court the other people who had stopped were concerned with his well-being and had asked him to stand back from the accident.

He also added that he was aware of six other accidents at that bend and that road maintenance company BEAR Scotland had only recently finished constructing better support on it.

Sheriff William Taylor told Mr Reynolds he knew the corner well and asked what he thought had caused the accident.

Reynolds responded: ‘ When the police came to speak to me in the hospital, they mentioned the road was greasy. The car had been serviced and the tyres were absolutely fine.

‘A witness said it was almost as though I was on ice, like the car was moving in slow motion.’

Mr Reynolds, who has recently been awarded a travelling scholarship to attend an international music conference in Chicago in December, told the sheriff he was a householder and in full -time employment so could not imagine he would have problems in paying a fine. However, as a peripatetic teacher, his licence was extremely important to him.