Irritable pensioner causes crash

Stewart was sentenced at Perth Sheriff Court

An angry pensioner who forced a young couple off the road and left them for dead in the wreckage of their car has been banned from driving for 15 months.

Perth Sheriff Court was told Alexander Stewart, from Blairgowrie, had a blood condition which made him "irritable".

Susan Anderson, 26, who was left with pins in her legs after the crash, said she was disappointed at the sentence.

Stewart, 72, who terrified a learner driver and her instructor in an earlier road rage incident, was fined £750.

The accident took place as Miss Anderson and her fiancé George McMaster, 22, were driving to work in Perth in March.

Horn blaring

She overtook Stewart on the A93 after he indicated that they should pass.

However, he then began blaring his horn and forced his way in front, narrowly missing Miss Anderson's car.

"Then he slammed on his brakes, so I had to slam on my brakes as well so I didn't crash into the back of him," she recalled.

At his age one would not expect him to behave in the way he has Sheriff Lindsay Foulis

"That put us into a skid and we couldn't recover from it and ended up hitting a tree. I can remember hitting the tree and then we kind of bounced backwards.

"I had to be cut out of the car and I spent six days in hospital. I had to undergo an operation on my knee to have the bone screwed back in."

She will undergo further surgery in October, but hopes to walk unaided down the aisle when she gets married next month.

Stewart admitted driving dangerously, overtaking and swerving in front of Miss Anderson's car, forcing her to brake sharply and swerve to avoid hitting his Peugeot.

He also admitted a careless driving charge over an incident involving a learner driver in January.

The court was told that his behaviour was partly caused by a condition which made him irritable. He is now taking medication.

I was hoping he would be banned for life for what he did Susan Anderson

"At his age one would not expect him to behave in the way he has," said Sheriff Lindsay Foulis.

He ordered Stewart to resit the extended driving test at the end of his driving ban.

"It seems clear that both instances of driving which you accepted fell within the category of road rage, caused by your pre-disposition to becoming irritable," he told the pensioner.

However, Miss Anderson said she was disappointed in the length of the disqualification.

"I was hoping he would be banned for life for what he did," she said.

"What happens now if he can get back on the road again? There is nothing to stop him behaving exactly the same way again."