My girl's got a life sentence but he got a slap on the wrist

Kaya McInnes, 14, from Marchmont, will need medical care for the rest of her life after the head-on collision on the A9 last year. Her aunt, Elizabeth Foley, and family friend James McKinlay, from Gilmerton, were killed.

Yet Ronald Maclean, the man blamed by a sheriff for causing the accident, received only a 600 fine and a two-year driving ban after pleading guilty to careless driving.

Sheriff Derek Pyle told the court a charge of dangerous driving was only prevented by legal reasons. Had he been charged with the more serious offence, Sheriff Pyle said Maclean would have been jailed.

Leonora McInnes, 52 – a full-time carer for her daughter since the accident last March – called the sentence an insult.

She told the Evening News: "Kaya has a life sentence and he's got away with a ban.

"I'm totally outraged about the whole thing, and it came only 11 days before the anniversary of the crash," she added. "Ronald Maclean has no idea of the effect this has had on the families involved, just because of his impatience on the road and overtaking when he shouldn't have.

I don't blame the sheriff because he could only pass sentence on the careless driving charge.

"There was nothing wrong with my 13-year-old daughter when she went on that journey, and now she has the brain of a ten-and-a-half-year-old and won't be able to enjoy the things in life she should. She may be left like that for the rest of her life.

"I don't think a fine and a ban justifies two lives and what has happened to my daughter."

Inverness Sheriff Court heard how lorry driver Maclean's bad driving led to the crash on a notorious stretch of the A9 near Dalwhinnie.

Sheriff Pyle said: "This is a tragic accident, but that would suggest that no-one was to blame. Someone was to blame. That is you, Mr Maclean.

"There is nothing wrong with the road. It is people like you that is the problem on that road."

Mr Maclean, 59, from Alness in the Highlands, had been forced to pull in sharply when attempting to overtake, causing a camper van behind to brake sharply.

The van skidded across the road and collided head on with the car the James Gillespie's High School pupil was travelling in.

The driver of the camper van, Richard McNicoll, 68, of Back Station Road, Linlithgow, also admitted careless driving, but was told by Sheriff Pyle that his blame was minimal.

Mrs McInnes added that Mr Maclean had never approached the family to make an apology.

She said: "It would make a big difference to us if he were to apologise, but we've never heard anything from him at all. It would be heart-lifting, but he doesn't understand the ripple effect this has had on so many lives.

"If only he could let his conscience get the better of him and say sorry."

As well as the deaths of Ms Foley, from Falkirk, and amateur referee Mr McKinlay, 50, Kaya's father Duncan was injured in the crash.

Mr Maclean's solicitor Neil Wilson said: "It is an example of ill-judged impatience with disproportionate tragic effects," adding Mr Maclean was "dreadfully sorry for bringing about these consequences".