Frenchman escapes jail for A9 double death crash
A FRENCHMAN who admitted responsibility for a crash on the A9 near Dalwhinnie which claimed the lives of two Harley Davidson riders has avoided prison.
Sheriff Susan Raeburn decided not to jail Roland Bayon, a local government roads engineer, from De Lesseps, Bourg de Peage in Southern France.
Bayon, the court heard, had just left a seven mile stretch of dual carriageway when he pulled out to give a car exiting on to a lay-by more room and hit the on-coming motorbike.
Peter Corris, (54) and his wife Jacqueline, (53), who was a pillion passenger, were thrown from their Harley and died of their injuries.
They had been returning home to Leyland in Lancashire from the popular Thunder in the Glens rally in Aviemore on August 29, last year, when the accident happened.
Depute Fiscal Heather Swan said the section of road was very similar to the dual carriageway where the northbound and southbound routes were separated by trees and vegetation and were completely hidden from each other.
The Sheriff asked if this could have left to confusion and the fiscal replied "Yes".
Miss Swan said there were three warning signs in English stating the dual carriageway was coming to an end and there was one conventional two-way traffic sign.
Bayon (61) of Alle Ferdinand, De Lesseps, Bourg de Peage admitted driving carelessly on the A9 at Balsporran, by Drumochter on the wrong side of the road in the face of oncoming traffic on August 29, 2010 and colliding with the couple and their motorbike.
The offence carried a maximum of five years in jail but the sheriff said she would fine Bayon £3,000 which would have been £4,000 but for his early plea. She also banned him from driving for two years.
Read the Strathy out on Wednesday (July 6) for the full story.
