"A company director who killed a biker by blocking the road with his Jaguar as he tried to carry out a three-point turn has escaped a jail term.
William Scott’s car was so long that motorcyclist David Roberts had no way of avoiding it as he came round a bend and the impact left him fatally injured.
Scott, 73, was not sent to prison after a court was told he had driven more than one million miles without incident in almost half a century of motoring.
Perth Sheriff Court was also told that residents had put a mirror up to help drivers at the junction - but it had been covered with a sheet and then removed by the local council.
The court was told the mirror, placed opposite a bellmouth where Scott started his tragic turn, had been taken down after Perth and Kinross Council refused to give it planning permission.
Scott’s deadly manoeuvre in the Jaguar XJ8 was carried out after he consulted his satellite navigation system and was informed he would have to turn back to reach his destination…"
Later, during a series of police interviews, he denied being to blame. He said: “To shut both carriageways you would need to be a bus. The motorcycle collided with my vehicle - big difference. My vehicle was stationary, that’s all I have to say.”
Doesn’t sound like the actions of a sorry man. More like a sorry excuse for a man. I remember a similar case a few years back where an HGV driver caused a fatality doing the same sort of thing. He had a clean driving history but still got 3 years.
Was out with the missus today in her car, and at a roundabout some old bird in a Renault Clio two cars in front takes a right and starts driving the wrong way round the roundabout. She obviously realised her mistake half-way round, so DOES A 3-POINT TURN ON THE ROUNDABOUT. Luckily it was pretty quiet and other cars held back until she’d cleared off, but we were like WTF!!! :w00t:
Just before Christmas I was leaving London on the A3 going through Kingston Vale when a car about 200 metres in front of me decided it was going to turn left using the entryway onto the dual carriageway to get through the gate just behind the second parked car. I slowed, then emergency braked when the driver realised they were not going to make the manoeuvre, and reversed back across the dual carriageway blocking it!
Could have been a slow moving tractor, broken down vehicle, fallen tree.
Still doesn’t excuse a piss poor decision to do a u-turn on a bend, regardless of age/miles covered.
yep, absolutely, no question. But when was the last time you rode for more than an hour in this city without witnessing careless or reckless driving? it’s prevalence must generate a defensive attitude no?
It looks to me like there was a wide gravel drive of some sort just next to him, ideal for turning around in. Why didn’t he just turn in there?
Being able to stop on your side of the road within the distance you can see is a laudable aim but how many of us actually stick to that out in country lanes?
I certainly know that there have been plenty of occasions when I would have been in trouble if someone was parked across the road. It’s hard to see how far round the corner the car was but according to this, at 60mph you take 4 seconds or 210 feet to stop (and presumably that’s in a straight line). There are plety of bends where you see maybe 50ft in front of you on your side before it opens up so you really ought to be doing maybe 20mph - I’m no speed demon but that’s pretty slow even for me.
I think about that every time I go around a bend in countryside, you just have to be able to stop, that is your responsibility. Turning around on a bend is reckless but has nothing to do with this guys death. We all break these rules so we can’t start whining when something bad happens as a result. The idiot in this story is the local council that had removed the mirror.
