Driver blames injured boy for collision
EIGHT-YEAR-OLD HURT BY PICK-UP TRUCK DRIVING ON GRASS
A man who collided with an eight-year-old boy while driving a pick-up truck off road blamed the injured youngster for what happened.
Ryan Crake, 23, had taken a short cut along a grassed area in Hetton – which was off-limits to vehicles – when he collided with the schoolboy, who was riding a bicycle, Sunderland magistrates’ heard.
The court heard Crake stopped and spoke to the boy – who suffered a broken ankle and bruising to his face – telling him ‘I don’t have time for this’, before driving off.
He was later found to have BZE – a metabolite of cocaine – in his system.
Prosecutor Angela Narey said: “At 6pm on August 21, police received a phone call from the mother of an eightyear-old boy informing them that he has been riding his bicycle when an H-reg pickup truck has driven down a grassed area and collided with her son, leaving him injured.
“The boy was interviewed, telling officers he was on his bike, going down a grassed bank when a man in a van came along.
“He tried to stop, but he crashed into the van. The man – Mr Crake – got out of the vehicle and asked him if he was OK.
“The boy told him that he wasn’t, to which Mr Crake said ‘I haven’t got time for this’. The boy said Mr Crake was mad at the dent in his vehicle.”
The court heard how police looking for Crake came across him driving along Four Lane Ends at 8pm.
Miss Narey said that when officers stopped the vehicle they could smell cannabis. Asking about the earlier incident, Crake said: “I know about it, he went into the side of me.”
A test showed he had 102 microgrammes of cocaine metabolite BZE in his blood, which is above the legal limit.
Crake, of Jane Street, Hetton, pleaded guilty to drugdriving and driving without due care and attention.
Gerry Ford, defending, said: “He was travelling at about 10mph. It wasn’t careless and there is some suggestion that the young boy in question was responsible for the collision, but the vehicle shouldn’t have been where it was.”
The court heard the case could have been dealt with alongside an offence of dangerous driving, when Crake drove the wrong way along the A19 just four days later.
Crake was sentenced to a suspended jail term of eight months, and, the court was told this offence would not have made a material difference to sentence, had the two cases been dealt with together.
He was therefore fined £240 with £30 surcharge and £85 costs and was banned from driving for two years.
“Mr Crake was mad at the dent in his vehicle” ANGELA NAREY