[visordown.com] - Pensioner avoids prison after falling asleep and hitting motorcycli

[Ninjette Newsbot]

Lincoln court house

A PENSIONER has been spared jail after causing ‘life changing’ injuries to a motorcyclist she hit when she fell asleep at the wheel of her car in Lincolnshire last May.

Mary Crofts, aged 69 from Billingford in Norfolk, caused an accident involving five vehicles on the A17 in Heckington when she drifted over to the wrong side of the road.

Crofts hit the back of a highways maintenance lorry before colliding with 44-year-old motorcyclist Karl Hargreaves.

After pleading guilty to a charge of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, she was sentenced to six month’s imprisonment, suspended for two years. She was also placed under a 7pm to 7am curfew and banned from driving for three years. She will be made to take an extended retest and pay £530 of costs.

During sentencing court recorder Stuart Sprawson told Crofts she chose to drive in a ‘state of tiredness’. His reason for sparing her jail was because of her good character and the lack of aggravating factors in her driving.

As a result of being hit by Crofts, Karl Hargreaves suffered a severe brain injury and several broken bones. He stopped breathing at the roadside but was revived by a passing trauma medic before being airlifted to hospital in Nottingham where he was sent to intensive care. After being in a wheelchair, Mr Hargreaves has to learn to walk again.

He said in a statement: ‘I just need everyone to know how this has taken my life away from me. I am not the man I was.’

Image: DebbieJ, under licence from Creative Commons.

• Sign up for Visordown's weekly newsletter, Bugsplat, to get the best motorcycle news, road tests and features plus exclusive competitions and offers direct to your inbox. Register as a Visordown member here and tick the box for Bugsplat in your newsletter settings here.

Related Content

Driver, 78, charged with causing double road traffic deaths
Drunk driver who left biker to die is spared jail
Calls for 'better enforcement against drivers using mobile phones'
Lorry driver jailed for killing motorcyclist
Motorists believe technology is more dangerous than drink driving


Click here for full story...