A MOTORIST who caused an accident on an unclassified road near Blainslie has escaped a driving ban at Selkirk Sheriff Court.

Transport manager Joshua Raggio, 25, of Harleyburn Drive, Melrose, was initially charged with dangerous driving following the incident on the morning of November 8 last year.

The court heard that his black Mercedes was on the other side of the road as it went over the brow of a hill and struck a vehicle coming in the opposite direction driven by a woman who had a two-year-old child in the vehicle.

The woman was taken to hospital where she was treated for bruising.

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Defence lawyer Tony Bolan said his client had swerved out a couple of feet as he had passed a lady walking a dog.

He hadn’t managed to pull his vehicle properly back over when he went up the hill and could not see the other vehicle coming in the other direction.

Mr Bolan said: “It was a split second momentary lapse.”

He accepted his client already had three penalty points on his licence but added Raggio worked for his father’s transport firm where as in his role as manager travelled 50,000 miles a year.

Sheriff Nigel Morrison fined Raggio £1,350 with a £75 victim surcharge but limited the number of penalty points to eight which meant he avoided losing his licence.