Two pensioners who both sustained horrific injuries when a motorist ploughed into their motorcycle after he fell asleep at the wheel have spoken for the first time about their ordeal two years on from the crash which almost killed them.

Malcolm Traquair, from Clydebank, and Ruth Keighley, from Kirkintilloch, were travelling together to a biker rally in Aviemore in August 2013 when a car veered across the A9 near Kingussie and hit them head on.

Shortly before setting off, the driver of the white Ford Fiesta – a 36-year-old businessman from Bridge of Allan - sent a text which read “hopeful of staying awake”, along with a photograph of four cans of “Starbucks doubleshot espresso premium coffee drink” sitting on a car passenger seat.

When the car smashed into them, Malcolm and Ruth, who are both 62, were propelled through the air before their limp bodies slammed into the tarmac below.

Malcolm, who was a firefighter for thirty years before he retired, said: “There was a huge impact, then the impression of something white, then something black underneath me.

“I ended up at the side of the road on my face. I tried to move and I realised that one of my arms wasn’t working.

“My friend Keith, who was behind us on his bike, was talking to me at the side of the road. I was asking where Ruth was and Keith told me the emergency services had told him they were ‘working on her’.

“I’ve been in the fire brigade and when somebody tells you that they’re ‘working on’ someone then you know they’re borderline dead, really. That’s normally a thing you say before you say they’re gone.

“I’ve been to some horrific incidents in thirty years with the brigade and this was as bad as any of them.”

Ruth, who was a senior nurse at the heart and lung centre in the Golden Jubilee National Hospital, suffered brain damage and remembers nothing about the day which changed her life forever.

She said: “They airlifted Malcolm to Raigmore in Inverness and me to the Southern General where I went into surgery. My boys tell me they didn’t expect me to last the night. I was unconscious for weeks. I’ve got friends who work at the Southern who have since said they can’t believe I’m still alive - so obviously I was in some mess.”

Ruth had a blood clot in her brain and had broken bones in her shoulder, her legs and her feet.

She said: “I have a titanium plate in my head after they took out a large part of my skull to relieve the pressure of the swelling. It was dreadful. Unfortunately my entire left side has been left with a weakness because of the brain injury.

“I was in hospital for sixteen months. I was told I would never walk again but I am now shuffling around with sticks thanks to intense physiotherapy. Although it won’t improve very much more.”

Malcolm suffered several broken bones in his legs and his pelvis was shattered, which forced doctors to carry out a complete hip replacement. He has also lost the use of his left arm.

“All the nerves were pulled out of the top five vertebrae in my neck because my arm was on the handlebar and the bike went one way and I went the other way. They took nerves from the back of my leg to try to bridge it but it won’t make any practical difference.

“There’s no feeling but strangely I get a lot of pain, as if it has been chopped off. So I’ll be on a cocktail of pain killers and sleeping pills for the rest of my life.”

The man who was asleep at the wheel of the car which crashed into them that fateful day admitted driving dangerously and was sentenced to carry out 300 hours’ community work and banned from the roads for three years.

Ruth said: “I’m glad he didn’t get a custodial sentence. Hopefully what came out of the case was a warning to others not to drive while overtired. But, for him to get a custodial sentence wouldn’t have made anything better.

Malcolm added: “There was no point in him going to prison. All would have done was affect his family and it wouldn’t have made any difference to us.”

Mother-of-two sons, Ruth, and father of one daughter, Malcolm, who are both divorcees, met seven years ago when they lived in the same building in Bearsden and became an item after bonding over their shared love of travelling, hill walking and biking.

But the strain of dealing with the traumatic crash and life changing injuries has overwhelmed them and they have decided to split.

Malcolm explained: “It just got to the point where the stress of everything was too much – for two years I’ve been running about, trying to support Ruth deal with all of that stuff, while trying to look after myself and my own recovery. So, it’s time out for a while.”

Ruth and Malcolm had intended to spend their retirement together, ticking off items on their ‘bucket list’, but they are now concentrating on their health.

Malcolm said: “The plan was to do a lot more travelling. We had a bucket list. I just get on with things one day at a time now.”

Ruth said: “I’ll never climb Ben Lomond again, that’s for sure. I will have to lead a more sedate life than before, although I still plan to travel.”

She added: “I feel very privileged every day that I’m alive and I love life. It’s different to what it was but I’m so happy that I’m still here.”