An elderly woman who caused a collision with a drug driver while on the road was advised to be more cautious in the future.
Marina Walker, 70, was involved in an accident when she failed to notice Daniel Porter, a motorcyclist, while driving through Stanthorne in Norwich. The incident occurred along the A54 Middlewich Road, near the junction of Bell Lane and Birch Lane.
Porter, 31, was thrown over his motorcycle’s bonnet after being hit by Walker’s Hyundai i10 car, causing the windscreen to shatter. He then landed on the road at around 2:30 pm.
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The motorcyclist sustained multiple broken bones and was airlifted to the hospital, where he received treatment for two weeks. Porter, a construction worker, had been using cannabis and did not have a valid MOT, which is a required road safety test, for his Honda CRF250L.
He was driving home from a 6 am shift at work when he approached the crossroad at approximately 50 mph. Walker was waiting at a give-way sign, and she suddenly pulled out onto his path, sending him flying off his vehicle.
Porter described the crash as leaving him with a broken humerus, a broken wrist, a displaced knee cap, a dislocated leg, and chest wall abrasions. Walker, who lives with fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition, suffered bruising and neck pain in the collision.
Porter told Crewe Magistrates’ Court that he has lost £100,000 in wages because he is still unable to work and has experienced some loss of movement in his arm. He said, “I do not care for anything or anyone, as I feel useless.” He added, “I have been unable to drive or ride. This has meant that I have been reliant on my wife and family members. This left me feeling useless.”
He further stated, “My quality of life is poor. I am constantly in pain and do not feel that will change any time soon.” Tests revealed that Porter had 4.6 micrograms of THC, the intoxicating essence of cannabis, in his system, which is more than double the legal limit. Porter admitted to smoking marijuana and consuming gummies infused with CBD, a molecule derived from the cannabis plant that does not produce the drug’s ‘high’ effect.
Porter, from Winsford, insisted to the court that he was not under the influence while driving. “It was in my system as I was smoking it at the weekend but I was 100% sober and had been working eight hours,” he said. He added that he was not aware that his MOT had expired at the time of the accident, though he now accepts that this was the case.
Walker denied any wrongdoing, stating that this was the first major accident she had ever been involved in since she started driving 50 years ago. She told the hearing, “I stopped at the give way sign and checked right and left for traffic and I remember the road being clear apart from a vehicle which was some distance away and I thought I had plenty of time. I pulled forward, then there was this horrendous thump. I did not know what had hit me.”
She continued, “I did everything I possibly could to make sure that the road was clear. He collided with me.” Justice of the peace Denise Rankin said, “Mr Porter was clear and consistent in his evidence and we reject the evidence of Mrs Walker, because at that junction we believe more care should have been taken before crossing the road. Mrs Walker, you should have taken greater care because of the visibility constraints out of that junction.”
Walker was convicted this week of causing serious injury by careless driving and was banned from driving for 12 months. She was also sentenced to a 12-month community order with 200 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay £764 in costs and surcharge. Porter was fined £80, banned from driving for 12 months, and made to pay £117 at an earlier hearing after he admitted drug driving.
