A9 horror crash driver slammed by sheriff for ‘sheer arrogance and stupidity’ when case calls at Inverness

A trapped and injured BMW driver told his father seconds after a head-on collision with a lorry: "I think I have killed mum" as motorists tried to free him and his barely conscious mother.

Dramatic dash-cam footage from the HGV and another car which showed the seconds before the high speed crash was played for a stunned Inverness Sheriff Court and the soundtrack recorded screams of horror.

Despite the lorry trying to avoid the collision by mounting a grass verge, the BMW drove straight into the front of it without making any effort to avoid hitting it, the court heard.

The black 318 was lifted off its wheels and rotated in the air before coming to rest on its four wheels on the side of the road it should have been on.

The man at the wheel was 24-year-old Gregor MacKay and his critically-ill parent, Karen MacKay, had to be flown by separate helicopters to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for treatment and now Mrs MacKay is permanently disabled, disfigured and impaired such was the extent of her injuries.

Her son told witnesses at the scene on the A9 near Delny, outside Invergordon on the morning of December 19, 2023: "It's my fault, I went to overtake and didn't realise there was two vehicles in front. I hesitated."

MacKay of The Avenue, Reay in Caithness stood in the dock sobbing as fiscal depute Pauline Gair told Sheriff Gary Aitken the circumstances leading up to and the aftermath of the collision following MacKay's guilty plea to causing serious injury to his mother and himself by dangerous driving by overtaking up to four cars in the face of oncoming traffic.

It prompted Sheriff Aitken to criticise the accused, saying: "It is not often I am lost for words but the sheer, arrogance and stupidity (pause) driving like that on the A9 or anywhere else is dangerous - it beggars belief.

"It was gross stupidity. There was plenty of room to get back in. What if it had been a mother and child in a Mini? It is a miracle that either of you are still alive at all. Poor driving can have catastrophic consequences and it has changed your mother's life. A custodial sentence must be a real possibility here."

The Sheriff deferred sentence until September 1 for a background report, disqualified MacKay from driving in the interim and continued his bail.

The court had heard MacKay's mother sustained life-threatening injuries, including one to her brain, multiple fractures to her face, spine and pelvis and liver, lung, bowel and colon damage.

Mrs Gair said: "She will have a life-long disability and may need life-long care."

MacKay suffered pelvis injuries which resulted in him spending recovery time in a wheelchair.

The pair had left their home to attend a dental appointment in Inverness and one motorist observed MacKay previously make what he regarded as a dangerous overtake on the Dornoch Bridge before watching him do the same a short time later with almost tragic results.