An Aberdeen woman has been banned from the road after causing the death of a grandmother in a horror head-on collision.
Ludivine Mercy, 43, swerved onto the wrong side of the A952 in Mintlaw in her red Fiat 500L and crashed head-on into a car travelling in the opposite direction.
The collision left a 67-year-old grandmother, a front seat passenger in a black Skoda Fabia, with injuries so serious she died just hours later in hospital.
The woman’s husband, who was driving, and another passenger in the rear seat were also seriously injured in the crash, as was Mercy.
Fiscal depute John Adams told Aberdeen Sheriff Court Mercy had been driving back from visiting a friend at 9.40pm on August 23 2018 when she “crossed from the south lane into the north lane directly into the path” of the Skoda and “colliding head-on”.
The vehicles came to rest “locked together” on a grass verge.
Mr Adams added crash investigators concluded it was “more likely the accused had swerved sharply rather than drifted across the road”.
They also concluded there was “no evidence showing any loss of control or emergency breaking from the accused’s car”.
The parties had to be freed from the vehicles by emergency services.
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Mercy told a witness who tried to assist that she “swerved because she saw something in the road”, however no other witnesses spoke to having seen anything.
All the occupants of the Skoda were “severely injured” and when the 67-year-old was freed from the wreckage her condition “deteriorated rapidly”
She was taken by ambulance to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary where she went into cardiac arrest and underwent emergency surgery, but was tragically pronounced dead at 3.05am.
Mercy previously admitted causing death by careless driving by failing to maintain proper observations, driving onto the opposite lane and into the path of an oncoming car and colliding with it, leading to the death of the woman and injuring her husband and the other passenger.
Defence counsel David Moggach said: “Clearly her death is a huge loss for her family and friends and no one can feel anything but a great deal of sympathy and sorrow for them, and that includes Mrs Mercy.
“It’s clear to all who know her that she has struggled to come to terms with the consequences of the accident, so much so that her current employers arranged for her to get counselling.
“She lives with the knowledge that she caused the accident every day. She still experiences flashbacks and nightmares about the incident.
“She demonstrates considerable remorse for causing the accident.
“She apologises from the bottom of her heart to the woman’s family and all those affected by the collision.”
Mr Moggach went on: “The question hanging over this case is what caused Mrs Mercy to drive her car across the road into the path of the other vehicle. Put bluntly, she doesn’t know.
“She agonises every day about what caused the collision. She can’t come up with an answer.”
Sheriff William Summers said: “The cause of the accident is clear. It happened when you crossed the centre line in the road into the path of a vehicle that led to a head-on collision.
“What is not clear is the reason for that. It has been suggested it may have been because you saw or thought you saw something in the road.
“We do not know and will never know.
“It’s clear there’s nothing the other driver could have done to avoid this accident. He was driving normally and appropriately and could not have anticipated what was about to happen.
“Whatever led to you crossing the centre line of the road, the outcome had far-reaching and tragic consequences.”
Sheriff Summers said the other driver was now “more anxious” as a result, but added that was “nothing compared to the grief and anguish he has had to endure and will have to endure from the loss of his wife”.
The sheriff also extended the court’s “sympathies and condolences” to the woman’s family, who sat in the public gallery watching proceedings.
Sheriff Summers told Mercy, of Cove Walk, Aberdeen: “There was a momentary lapse in concentration, albeit that lapse had catastrophic consequences.
“You were seriously injured in the accident and you are genuinely remorseful.
“You recognise the harm you have caused and that is something you will have to live with for the rest of your life.
“This is a sad and tragic case for all concerned.”
Sheriff Summers banned Mercy from driving for four years and gave her an 18-month supervision order.
She was also ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and made subject to a six-month restriction of liberty order.
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