Sheep crash biker faces repair bill

A council which billed a motorcyclist for damaging a road when he collided with a stray sheep has defended its decision.

Biker Moray Ferguson was sent a bill for £200 by Aberdeenshire council after his bike hit a sheep which had wandered into his path on the unclassified Cuminestown to Fyvie Road.

The 47-year-old was flung from his black Honda Fireblade motorbike which burst into flames. He suffered a broken hip socket, pelvis and collarbone, seven cracked ribs and a collapsed lung in the accident.

The fire caused the road surface to melt, leaving it with a "bubbly" texture covering approximately six feet by six feet where the accident happened, a neighbouring farmer said. The sheep was also killed in the accident, which happened on July 4 this year. After five weeks of hospital treatment, the father-of-two returned home, but was shocked when Aberdeenshire council sent him their invoice to cover the cost of repairing the road surface.

A council spokesman said it was a "standard procedure" to charge people involved in accidents for damaging its roads.

But Mr Ferguson, a construction engineer, from Cuminestown, Turiff, told the BBC he was "completely shocked" by the bill.

"I didn't know there was going to be a stray sheep on the road," he said. "The accident wasn't my fault."

The road was temporarily repaired, but neighbouring farmer Davey Moir, of South Teuchar Farm, said the council still hadn't fixed the damage.