Driving ban for Forgue farmer after head-on A82 crash near Loch Ness
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A self-employed farmer who admitted causing a head-on crash on the A82 road near Loch Ness was fined £1570 at Inverness Sheriff Court.
And Steven Seivwright was also picked up a mandatory 12 month driving ban because he had been charged with a new offence of causing serious injury by "careless or inconsiderate driving" that only came into force in June 2022.
This new Section 2C of the Road Traffic Act created by Parliament means any careless driving offences committed after that date, where serious injury has been caused, will allow the courts to impose more serious sentences including a mandatory period of disqualification of not less than 12 months.
First offender Seivwright (52) of Forgue by Huntly, appeared before Sheriff Sara Matheson on Tuesday, October 31 and admitted causing serious injury by careless or inconsiderate driving in the afternoon of Saturday January 28 this year at Dochgarroch not far from Inverness.
Seivwright suffered an injured sternum while is wife sustained a broken wrist and ankle fiscal depute Emily Poke told the court. An occupant of the other vehicle also suffered a broken sternum.
Miss Poke said that other motorists observed Seivwright's car cross the centre white line and enter the opposite lane and collide head-on with a vehicle coming the other way.
Mrs Seivwright was trapped in the wreckage and had to be freed by firefighters added Miss Poke, and she and her husband were both taken to hospital by ambulance.
The main Inverness to Fort William road was blocked for some time.
An Aberdeen defence solicitor representing Seivwright said he was researching a route for a farmers' outing he was arranging.
She added: "He does not know what caused him to drift across the white line. It was a momentary lapse of concentration. He is deeply regretful of all the injuries caused by this."
The loss of his driving licence will have a big effect on his life, his work and his family she added, since they live in the country, and he will have to make alternative arrangements for travelling between farms he works.
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