A long-serving University of York don caused a woman to suffer life-changing injuries as he drove along the A19 south of the city, magistrates heard.
The driving of Dimitar Kazakov before the crash concerned other motorists behind him so much they filmed it and told police, said Damian Walsh, prosecuting.
He was “veering into the centre of the carriageway”, said Mr Walsh.
In an “unsafe manoeuvre” he positioned himself on the road in front of the vehicle driven by the woman which was coming in the opposite direction.
In a statement to police, the woman said the crash had left her with “life-changing injuries which affect my abilities to work and lead a normal life,” said the prosecutor.
Mr Walsh said the woman suffered a spinal fracture, dislocated wrist, five rib fractures, had to wear a back brace and have a chest drain, as well as other medical treatment including surgery.
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Associate professor and AI specialist Kazakov, 59, of Milton Street, off Lawrence Street, York, pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by careless driving of a Kia Sportage on the A19 at Deighton on April 14.
Magistrates adjourned his case at the request of defence solicitor Colin Byrne so that the defence team could gather information for the professor’s mitigation and so that a probation officer could prepare a pre-sentence report on Kazakov.
The bench said that their colleagues should consider all options for sentence including imprisonment and banned him on an interim basis.
Kazakov will return to York Magistrates Court on November 2 to learn his sentence and how long his ban will last.
He has no previous convictions.
When the crash happened, police said the woman was driving a Fiat 500.
According to the University of York website, Kazakov is part of its Department of Computer Science and its artificial intelligence (AI) research group.
He has been with the university for 28 years, having joined as a research associate in 1998 and specialises in machine learning, natural language processing, machine learning of language, language evolution, multi-agent systems, and AI in finance and healthcare.
He has held posts as lecturer and senior lecturer and has been reader (associate professor) since 2023.
He also gained a doctorate in AI and biocybernetics from the Czech Technical University (České vysoké učení technické) in Prague in 2000.
In 2001, he gained the York Certificate of Academic Practice from the University of York and in 2019 became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.