Deaf Grangemouth driver (83) said frosted windscreen caused him to veer blindly into oncoming traffic

Samuel McAlpine, Hawthorn Street, Grangemouth, appeared at Falkirk Sheriff Court yesterday having pled guilty to driving dangerously in Newlands Road, Grangemouth on January 9.

Procurator fiscal depute Nhabeela Rahmatullah said: “The accused’s car was in the middle of the road, veering towards the opposite carriageway. Witnesses saw the accused’s car collide with another car and he failed to stop.

“Attempts were made to call out to him, but he carried on driving, narrowly avoiding another collision with another vehicle. Police approached the accused, who was sitting in the driver’s seat.

“They asked if he was okay and he replied ‘It was my bloody fault – I didn’t clear my window. It was no one else, it was me Samuel McAlpine’.

During court proceedings profoundly hard of hearing McAlpine, who was representing himself, had to have his son sitting next to him to relate what was being said in court.

McAlipine’s son told the court his father was moving over to the other side of the road because there was a lot of cars barked on the left and he wanted to avoid them. He added his dad’s windscreen had frozen up.

He told Sheriff Christopher Shead the car was the only mobility his elderly father, who has no criminal record, had to get around.

Sheriff Shead banned McAlpine from driving for 12 months and gave him two months to pay a £375 fine.