Young motorbiker stopped after weaving through Wick street ‘to avoid potholes’
A court heard why a young Caithness motorcyclist was weaving about on a Wick street... he was trying to avoid potholes.
However, the 17-year-old was stopped by police and charged with careless driving.
It happened after officers on mobile patrol on March 11 last year observed the Honda bike “weaving across the full width of Glamis Road”, the sheriff at Wick was told last week.
Grant McLennan said: “They took the view that the bike was travelling in excess of the 20mph speed limit and followed him before stopping him.”
The fiscal depute added that the road was potholed and in “a bad state of repair” and that parked vehicles were an additional difficulty.
George Mathers said that the accused, a provisional licence holder, who pleaded guilty, had borrowed the cycle from his brother.
The Aberdeen solicitor went on: “My client was weaving to avoid the potholes and other problems on the road. He does accept he was going a little fast, but his speed would have been not much over the limit.”
More from the John O’Groat Journal:
• Caithness roads ‘in a truly dire condition’ and ‘deteriorating by the day’
Mr Mathers said that the lad, who was 16 at the time of the offence, had joined the army and “was doing well” in the early courses he had undertaken. He appealed to Sheriff Neil Wilson not to take away his licence which would impact on his driving instruction in the army.
The sheriff said he had listened to the background to the offence and told the accused, a first offender: “This is your first time in court and I trust it will be your last.”
The young soldier, who cannot be named as he is under the age of 18, was fined £240 and incurred four penalty points.
