A Scots motorist knocked over a six-year-old boy on his scooter in a hit-and-run after suffering “brain fog” during a diabetic episode.
Philip Lister struck the youngster with his car in Edinburgh’s city centre after failing to stop at a red light on a pedestrian crossing.
The boy was knocked unconscious and left bleeding after the car’s wing mirror smashed him on the head.
Lister’s vehicle was later traced by cops using CCTV and he told officers he had no memory of the collision.
The 45-year-old appeared at the city’s sheriff court on Thursday and pled guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
Lister, a restaurant manager at The Scotch Whisky Experience tourist attraction on the Royal Mile, admitted taking a test before getting behind the wheel which showed his blood sugar levels were extremely low.
Fiscal depute Sophie Hanlon said the boy had been with his mum and four-year-old sister shortly before 5pm and reached a crossing on the Western Approach Road.
Ms Hanlon said he was on his scooter and stopped to wait for the green man.
She said a car heading east “failed to stop at the red light and struck the child causing him to be thrown to the ground”.
The prosecutor said the vehicle drove on and the boy’s mum ran to his aid, finding him “unresponsive and limp and with blood covering his face”.
She said: “After a minute or so, he regained consciousness, began to cry, and was asking his mother if it had been a “dream”.”
The boy was taken to the Sick Kids Hospital and later referred for plastic surgery at St John’s Hospital in Livingston for treatment to a cut above his eyebrow to try and minimise scarring.
Police checked CCTV at the rear of Fountain Park Leisure Centre and identified the car’s number plate from footage, the court heard.
Ms Hanlon said officers went to the car’s registered address and spoke to Lister’s former partner who said he had type 1 diabetes.
The court heard the ex-partner said Lister had recently lost a wing mirror, adding: “He said something about it last week. He was having an episode. It will definitely be him.”
Officers spoke to Lister who showed them his damaged car and later told how he’d driven to the Pentland Hills that day for a walk.
Dad-of-two Lister said he’d checked his sugar levels before driving and found they were 3.3, with a reading below 3.9 being hypoglycemic.
He told officers he took five glucose tablets and drove home but the journey had been a “blur” and he “had brain fog”.
He said he only noticed the damaged wing mirror the next time he drove, and now felt “guilty and devastated” at being responsible for a collision he had no memory of.
Defence agent Mark Harrower said his first offender client had been diagnosed with diabetes aged 30 and took insulin to regulate his blood sugar levels.
The solicitor said a “severe drop” in blood sugar can result in memory being “impaired” and sufferers carrying out tasks on “auto-pilot”.
Lister had taken dextrose tablets after the low reading following his walk, Mr Harrower said, and that would “normally sort it out”. He said Lister accepted he should’ve waited ten to 15 minutes to do another test before getting in his car.
The “wing mirror landed a glancing blow to the little boy”, Mr Harrower added, and fortunately he’d made a “full recovery” apart from a potential scar.
He said Lister had voluntarily surrendered his driving licence and didn’t intend to “drive again in the foreseeable future”.
Sheriff Kenneth Campbell QC said it was a “tragic case”. He deferred sentence on Lister, of the city’s Davidson’s Mains area, until next month for reports and handed him an interim driving ban.
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