A bus driver who was convicted of dangerous driving last year has had his conviction quashed after the Sheriff Appeal Court viewed CCTV footage which they decided showed that his driving did not even meet the lower test for careless driving.
The bus driver was previously convicted following an incident in January 2018 when it was alleged that he did not leave a sufficient gap between his vehicle and a delivery driver who was standing in the road having parked on a double yellow line, leaving the delivery driver pinned against his van.
When the case was first heard, the sheriff decided that the delivery driver was an unsatisfactory witness who had exaggerated what had happened as the CCTV footage showed that he was not pinned against his van, and was unable to accept his evidence in relation to the serious part of the charge. However, the sheriff decided to convict the bus driver after the words “causing him to become pinned against said vehicle and motor car” were deleted from the charge, as they were of the opinion that the footage corroborated the basic details of the delivery driver’s evidence.
The Sheriff Appeal Court judges took a different view of the CCTV footage from the sheriff, and were of the opinion that the bus driver’s actings were at their highest a misjudgement. They took the view that the footage showed a “dynamic and developing situation where both driver and pedestrian had to exercise their own judgement”, and that it was crucial that there was no impact between the bus and the delivery driver. The appeal was therefore allowed.
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