Taxi Driver Online

Speeding taxi driver told terrified passengers to shut up as he drove at 100mph past fatal crash site

A TAXI driver terrified his passengers by hitting 100 miles per hour in freezing conditions. Neil Colquhoun left two sisters in his cab badly shaken as he raced past the scene of one of Scotland's worst road accident.

He drove at 70mph through built up areas then overtook while approaching a blind bend. And when his passengers complained, he told them: "Shut up." Yesterday, he was found guilty of careless driving at excessive speed - but still kept his licence. Now he plans to become a bus driver.

At Perth Sheriff Court yesterday, sisters Victoria and Louise Guthrie told how they were "shaken" by their ordeal after Colquhoun took them on a 15-mile journey home to Crieff. As they left Perth, he overtook another car heading towards a bend and they asked him to slow down.

They then watched the speedometer hit 100 miles per hour as Colquhoun raced along Burnbrae Straight, near Methven, where five people died in a crash in 2007. The Guthrie sisters - whose brother died recently in a motorbike crash - told the court that the taxi driver was still hitting 70 miles per hour as he drove through the village of Methven.

When he was tackled about the speed he was travelling at, Colquhoun simply replied that he was an experienced driver who had used the road for many years. Lucy Keane, prosecuting, told the court that when Victoria Guthrie asked him to slow down, Colquhoun - whose licence has been suspended by Perth and Kinross Council - told her to "shut up". When the journey came to an end, she called the police and the taxi operator to formally complain.

Sheriff Derek Livingston found Colquhoun, 52, of Rannoch Road, Perth, guilty of driving carelessly and at excessive speed, with disregard for the safety of passengers and other road users, between Perth and Crieff on February 21.

He said: "Victoria Guthrie said he was going at 100 miles per hour between Methven and Gilmerton, and doing 73mph through 30mph signs. Louise Guthrie said he was doing 95 mph. "I am satisfied that the accused was going at grossly excessive speeds on the night in question. The temperature was below freezing.

"I am quite tempted to disqualify you, but on balance it might actually be better to keep you on the road for three years, knowing you have nine penalty points. "I do regard it as a bad case of careless driving. For the next three years, you are going to have to watch your step while driving." He imposed nine points and fined Colquhoun £300.

The court was told that Colquhoun, who was banned for 18 months for dangerous driving in 2001, planned to return to his old job as a bus driver.

Kevin Clinton, from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said: "This sounds like an appalling piece of driving that put his passengers, and everyone else on the road, at serious risk. "He is very lucky not to have been banned."

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