News / Diabetic driver fined after Gulberwick accident
A SALMON farm worker who failed to negotiate a junction and drove his car through a crash barrier has been fined £300 and given five penalty points – although a diabetic episode may have caused the incident.
Balazs Onhausz, 33, of Scalloway’s New Street, pleaded guilty to driving without due care or attention or without reasonable consideration for other road users on the A970 at Gulberwick on 7 April this year.
Appearing at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Tuesday, he admitted failing to keep a proper lookout, losing control of the vehicle, causing it to strike a crash barrier and fence, damaging both.
Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said Onhausz had been taking glucose tablets for diabetes at the time, but had not sought to blame his condition for the accident.
The fiscal said Onhausz had been travelling from Scalloway to Lerwick at around midnight. He “simply failed to negotiate” the junction and careered across the road, through the crash barrier and down into a field.
The Hungarian man had lost consciousness but came around and returned to the roadside where a passer-by took him home. Onhausz subsequently went to hospital for treatment.
Defence agent Tommy Allan said his client was a type 1 diabetic and had mostly managed to keep the condition under control, but believed he may have had “some sort of episode” on the night in question.
While conceding his diabetes was not mentioned in police interviews, Allan said his client had carried out further research and now believes it may well have caused the accident.
But Allan said his client accepted the incident resulted from “a lack of careful management of his condition”.
He said Onhausz realised it was fortunate that neither he nor anyone else sustained serious injuries and the incident had given him a “real scare”.
Allan said his client has been here for eight years and is employed by Scottish Sea Farms, a job for which he requires a driving licence.
Sheriff Philip Mann said he was content that the DVLA was in a better position than him to assess whether it was safe for Onhausz to hold a licence.
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