Newly Qulaified Driver Jailed After Crashing his Car

A newly qualified speeding driver who left three other people injured after crashing his car on what was described in court as "the most dangerous road in Scotland" was jailed for nine months. Apprentice painter Luke Clark looked stunned as a sheriff said his actions were so serious it was his painful duty to impose a jail term, even though he was a first offender with no previous convictions of any kind. Clark, 19, lost control of his red Vauxhall Corsa while trying to keep up with pals in two other cars on a what should have been a day trip to Loch Lomond. He overtook on a blind bend and blind summit, before spotting an oncoming car, oversteering, overcorrecting, and overturning. His two-year-old Corsa, which he had only owned for two months, landed back on its wheels and then erupted into a fireball -- just seconds after he and his three passengers had scrambled, all injured, from the wreck. The accident happened on a "dry, sunny" Easter Monday -- April 21st 2014 -- on the A098 Stockiemuir Road, near Killearn, Stirlingshire. Clark had passed his test only three months earlier. Sheriff Wyllie Robertson told Clark, whose mother wept on the public benches, that his conduct was "undoubtedly in the upper range" of dangerous driving, especially for a case prosecuted at summary, rather solemn, level in the Scottish courts. The sheriff said: "This is an accident blackspot. "I have also been told this year by a witness that it's the most dangerous road in Scotland -- I don't know if that's true. "The consequences of your driving could have been catastrophic, and it's frankly astonishing there were no more serious injuries, or fatalities -- from these exact same circumstances you could have been appearing in the High Court for causing death by dangerous driving and facing a sentence of five to ten years. "The degree of dangerous driving is at the upper level of such driving, and I have to conclude, painful though it is, that despite your lack of any record no disposal other than custody is appropriate." In addition, he banned Clark for two years, and ordered him to re-sit his test before driving unsupervised again. Stirling Sheriff Court was told that Clark and several friends had set out in three cars to head for the Loch. Adrian Fraser, prosecuting, said the point where the crash happened was a single, undivided carriageway country road subject to the national 60mph speed limit, but it was also an accident blackspot, with a number of blind spots and blind bends. At 3.45 pm, drivers in a string of traffic travelling north noticed two cars -- which turned out to be driven by Clark's friends -- overtake them at speed despite the fact that there were blind bends and blind summits ahead. The woman driver of an Audi in the string of traffic became aware of Clark's car behind her, "jutting out" over the centre line . The depute fiscal said: "The accused's vehicle kept pulling out into the middle of the road to get past the Audi, and it could reasonably be inferred that the driver was trying to catch up with the other two vehicles that had overtaken earlier. "He can't be said to have been racing them, but it could be said he was trying to catch up with them and keep up with them." Clark then pulled out to overtake the Audi on the approach to a blind hill, where it would not have been possible to see the road ahead clearly. Mr Fraser described the Audi driver as being "scared", and braking to slow down. Clark's Corsa then disappeared over the hill. Seconds later, a married couple in a car coming the other way became aware of the Corsa careering towards them out of control, and described it as "flipping over three times in front of them". The Audi driver saw "red debris flying through the air" and scattering over a wide area. Mr Fraser said Clark's vehicle had "tumbled over". He added: "The occupants were seen to just get out before the car was engulfed in smoke. "As a result of the intensity of the fire, the road surface was damaged, and fencing and scrubland beside the road was burnt." Clark and all of his passengers were injured. One, a young male, was seen with blood on his arms, screaming loudly. An air ambulance was scrambled, and all were taken to hospital. Clark suffered bruised tendons to his hand and needed stitches; a female passenger suffered whiplash and bruising; the male seen screaming suffered a broken wrist, tendon damage, and needed a skin graft as well as suffering whiplash; and the third young man in the car suffered only minor injuries. Mr Fraser said: "The accident appears to have happened because the accused overtook when it was clearly unsafe to do so, hit the verge, overturned, tumbled, landed back on the carriageway, then burst into flames." Clark, of Maryhill, Glasgow, pleaded guilty to driving dangerously at excessive speed. Defence agent Laura-Anne Radcliffe said: "He fully appreciates the appalling nature of his driving. "When he began the overtaking manoeuvre he immediately realised it was dangerous, accelerated, pulled back in, oversteered, hit the verge, overcorrected, and lost control."