Personal injury news

Tired driver causes road traffic accident

A young girl and her mother were lucky to escape serious personal injury when a driver fell asleep at the wheel, mounted the kerb and ran into them.

The road traffic accident occurred in Ewell, Surrey, in September 2005, and left six-year-old Rowena Taylor with badly injured feet and suffering from flashbacks. Her mother, Hilary, also hurt her back and chest after being thrown into the windscreen of the vehicle, and was left unable to work for several weeks.

The driver of the car, 23-year-old Nicholas Reynolds, appeared at Redhill Magistrates' Court and pleaded guilty to a charge of careless driving. Defending himself, he told how he had worked four extra night shifts at work before returning home worn out to find his partner ill. He was then forced to do the school run, and it was then that he fell asleep behind the wheel.

Prosecuting, Gordon Grace described the car accident, saying, "Mrs Taylor was walking steadily along the pavement, hand in hand with her daughter. She says the front of the car threw her onto the car bonnet and then the windscreen, which shattered, before she ended up on the car roof.

"Rowena was pinned between the wall and the car. Reynolds said he was sorry but he was really tired. He called the ambulance and police from his mobile phone."

The court accepted that Reynolds was truly sorry for causing the road traffic accident and endorsed his licence with nine points, fined him £230, ordered him to pay costs of £43 and instructed him to pay Mrs Taylor and her daughter injury compensation of £300.