A FRENCH resident drove on the wrong side of the road after she left an East Lothian estate heading for the airport before a head-on crash after which a woman died.
Caroline Emmet (56) travelled for about half a kilometre before the collision with another car, a court heard yesterday (Wednesday).
Emmet denies causing the death of Elizabeth Henderson (83) by driving dangerously on the A198 North Berwick to Tranent road.
It is alleged that on July 19, 2017, she drove on the opposing side of the carriageway and into the path of a car driven by Mrs Henderson's husband William about 550 metres west of a junction with the Archerfield Estate.
It is said both vehicles were damaged and Mr Henderson and his front seat passenger, Christine Fraser, were severely injured and that Mrs Henderson, who was a rear seat passenger, was so severely injured that she died in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary two days later.
At the start of a trial at the High Court in Edinburgh, advocate depute Richard Goddard QC read a statement of agreed evidence between the Crown and defence to jurors.
He said in it that at 10.20 on the day of the crash Emmet was driving a blue VW Golf when it collided with the red VW Golf driven by Mr Henderson.
The red car was being driven at about 45 miles per hour on the left lane heading east as it approached a point about 550 metres west of the junction with the estate.
The statement said: "The blue Golf then approached the red Golf whilst the blue Golf was travelling on the wrong side of the road.
"This caused the cars to collide head on with one another."
Jurors were told that Emmet resides in the French capital of Paris and was returning to Edinburgh airport with the blue Golf.
"She drove the blue Golf on the wrong side of the road from the point she left the Archerfield Estate and turned onto the A198 until the point of the collision," the jury was told in agreed evidence.
Lorna Anderson (47) was driving towards Gullane when she saw a blue car on the wrong side of the road.
She told the court there was a bend coming up and next saw the blue car after a head-on collision had occurred.
The trial before Lord Glennie continues.
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