Man 'nodded off' at the wheel, crashing into a parked car and crushing it against a garden wall, Craigavon court hears

Jonathan Joshua Beasant, aged 23, from Tudor Braes, Donaghcloney, appeared before Craigavon Magistrates Court pleading guilty to careless driving.

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The court heard police arrived at the scene of a crash on Clare Road, Waringstown on August 19 last year at 1.15am and saw two vehicles at the side of the road with ‘substantial’ damage.

One of the vehicles was pressed up against a garden wall of the property. The driver of the second vehicle, the defendant, approached police and told them he had fallen asleep which led him to striking the kerb and veering across the road into the parked and unattended Citroen, causing it to crush into the garden wall.

“During interview the defendant made further admissions of losing concentration and of falling asleep at the wheel,” said the prosecutor.

Beasant’s lawyer said his client instructed that he did fall asleep on that occasion. “He nodded off while at the wheel,” he said.

He told the court his client, who is a store manager for Slurry Kat, started work at 7am that morning working until 7pm that night. As a hobby and to get more income he works on ‘project cars’ along with friends and on this occasion he was working on a car until 1am.

"He had been on his feet for quite a long time at that stage. Things went on longer than he anticipated and by the time he was driving home he ended up nodding off,” the lawyer explained.

The lawyer said his client, who lives with his parents and pays them rent, would have to rely on taxis to get to work if he were to lose his licence.

District Judge Michael Ranaghan said there is “an onus on drivers to make sure they get plenty of sleep so things like this don’t happen”.

He said he would put the defendant “on the brink of disqualification” and gave him six penalty points on top of the three penalty points he already has plus a £200 fine and £15 offender levy.