Instructor and teenage learner accused of dangerous driving

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Sat 22 Jan 2005

Instructor and teenage learner accused of dangerous driving

TIM BUGLER

A DRIVING instructor and his teenage pupil are facing joint charges of dangerous driving after their dual-controlled car went out of control, crashed through a fence and overturned.

Learner driver Susan Beaton, 19, and her instructor Robert King, 41, are both alleged to have been responsible for the crash, on a country road in the Campsie Fells in Stirlingshire in June 2003.

In addition to the charge of dangerous driving, Beaton is accused of being more than twice the legal alcohol limit during the driving lesson. King, who was injured in the accident, is also charged with refusing to take a breath test while in hospital.

The case is described by legal sources as being "highly unusual".

Beaton, of 31 Dunkeld Court, Balfron, is alleged to have lost control by driving a dual-control Peugeot 206 dangerously and at excessive speed on the B822 Kippen to Fintry road. As a result the car crossed the carriageway and crashed through a section of fence before landing, badly damaged, on its roof.

King, of 18 Drummond Place, Callander, is accused of driving dangerously by allowing Beaton to drive at excessive speed and lose control while he was instructing her and was in control of the duplicate clutch and brake pedals.

It is further alleged that Beaton was more than 2.4 times the legal alcohol limit - and that King refused a breath test in the accident and emergency department of Stirling Royal Infirmary without reasonable excuse in circumstances where it might be supposed he had alcohol in his body.

At Stirling Sheriff Court yesterday Beaton and King both maintained pleas of not guilty to the charges.

Defence agent Mark Lunny, for both, asked for the case to be adjourned for legal argument.

The court was earlier told that the legal debate would centre round the Crown’s right to use allegedly self-incriminating evidence about whether or not Beaton was behind the wheel at the time of the crash. Sheriff Andrew Cubie refused the legal move and continued the case for trial on 1 March.


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