£1,500 bill for Long Hill van driver who overtook bus on blind bend

Richard Charlton MacDonald, 28, was convicted at High Peak Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday in his absence, of driving without due care and attention, crossing solid white line markings and having no insurance.

John Cooper, prosecuting, said at about 5.30pm on May 7 last year the off-duty officer had been travelling as a passenger on a bus along the A5004 Long Hill between Buxton and Whaley Bridge.

The court heard how the officer saw a dark-coloured car overtake the bus, completing the move just as the solid white line system started as the road approached a sharp bend.

However the officer was surprised to see a second vehicle, a black van, then proceed to overtake the bus.

“The single-decker bus was a long vehicle and the van driver had no way of telling if there was anything coming in the opposite direction,” said Mr Cooper.

“The van moved back in, and two or three seconds later a silver car passed in the opposite direction.

The off-duty officer made a note of the van’s registration number, and it later emerged that the vehicle had no insurance as it had been cancelled in January, said the prosecutor, adding that various letters had been sent out but MacDonald had failed to respond to any of them.

Magistrates found the matters proved against MacDonald, of Hill Cottage, The Wash, Chapel-en-le-Frith.

MacDonald was ordered to pay a total of £1,536, made up of fines of £1,320, £150 costs and an £66 surcharge.

He also had eight points added to his driving licence.