[A] MOTORIST who crashed her car on the A595 after falling asleep at the wheel has been sentenced at Carlisle Crown Court.
Rosemary Bryant, 55, careered across the key link road at Mealsgate and into a sign as she nodded off after a day’s walking around Derwentwater, near Keswick.
No other vehicle was involved but Bryant’s Vauxhall Corsa was written off. She immediately contacted police and later told an officer she tried to fight off tiredness by winding down windows and listening to Radio Four.
Prosecutor Beccy McGregor said Bryant confessed she then made an error by switching station to Classic FM – despite knowing it was “the type of music that would normally send her to sleep”.
In court today (MON) Bryant admitted a dangerous driving charge, and was sentenced to 80 hours’ unpaid work. She was also banned from driving for a year, and ordered to take an extended test.
Judge Peter Hughes QC heard Bryant, of Port Carlisle, had previously been of “totally unblemished character”, and received only three penalty points in 26 years.
But Judge Hughes told her: “You could so easily have crossed the road into the path of oncoming cars, and the consequences could have been horrendous.”
