Bus manoeuvre forced car to swerve onto verge

A BUS driver has admitted driving carelessly and overtaking into the face of an oncoming car, making it swerve onto the hard shoulder to avoid a crash.

Damian Ristori, 38, of Commercial Road, Lerwick, was fined £540 and received nine penalty points on his licence for the 27 August offence, which was a “serious example” of careless driving.

Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie told Lerwick Sheriff Court on Wednesday that Ristori had been driving north at 8.55am between Petawater and the Halfway House when he tried to overtake a light goods vehicle.

The oncoming driver, who had a three-year-old in the back of her car, had no option but to swerve onto the verge.

A plain clothes police vehicle had been following two cars behind Ristori’s bus and “witnessed the entire incident”. But it was reported by the other driver in any case.

Ristori, who had eight passengers on his bus, apologised for what happened and said he had never done anything similar in 20 years of driving and hoped to never do it again.