A MOTORCYCLIST spent a month in hospital and was forced to stop working for a year after he was seriously injured during a crash.

Ben Hastie was riding his motorbike along Edinburgh Road in Cockenzie when he made the “demonstrably daft” decision to overtake a stationary line of traffic.

But as he passed several vehicles, Hastie crashed into a van that was turning right from the main road onto the village’s Osborne Terrace.

Hastie, 23, was thrown from his motorbike following the collision with the van and landed several feet away, suffering a serious leg injury.

Witnesses were said to have phoned the emergency services after seeing a bone “protruding” from the injured motorcyclist’s leg.

He was rushed to Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh for treatment and was later arrested after police officers attended at the hospital.

Hastie, of The Hedges, Tranent, pleaded guilty to failing to keep a proper lookout and driving without due care and attention when he appeared at the city court last Friday.

Fiscal depute Oliver Davidson-Richards told the court that the van struck by Hastie was being driven by Chris Mackie along Edinburgh Road at about 4pm on June 11 last year.

The fiscal said that the van stopped and was indicating to turn right onto Osborne Terrace when Hastie was driving in the opposite direction.

Hastie was said to have overtaken a line of traffic and “failed to keep a lookout and failed to slow down and collide with the motor van as it was turning”.

Mr Davidson-Richards said: “A number of witnesses attended to the accused and noticed a broken bone was protruding through his skin.”

Police then attended the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh to speak to the motorcyclist and he was subsequently arrested and charged with road traffic offences.

Solicitor Mary Moultrie, representing Hastie, said that her client had “not worked for a year and had been in hospital for a month” due to the injuries he had suffered during the collision.

Ms Moultrie added that Hastie was usually employed at a local holiday park and that he had been involved in an “extremely unfortunate incident” that afternoon.

Sheriff Peter Anderson said: “You have learned, through your own behaviour, a very harsh lesson here of the importance of careful driving.

“To overtake a line of traffic, even if it was only one or two vehicles at a junction, is demonstrably daft. I hope you have learned yourself that is no way to drive.

“This was significantly bad driving and there was no excuse for it and it was a deliberate decision.”

Sheriff Anderson sentenced Hastie to five penalty points on his driving licence and ordered him to pay a fine of £320.

Hastie pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention and driving a motorcycle while overtaking road users when it was not safe to do so, failing to keep a proper lookout and colliding with a van driven by Chris Mackie whereby both vehicles were damaged and he was injured at the junction of Edinburgh Road and Osborne Terrace, Cockenzie, on June 11 last year.