A motorist caught on camera as he swerved erratically across the M6 before parking up and stepping into lane one just inches from passing vehicles has been sentenced by a judge.
Horrified motorway users alerted police after seeing Andrew Griffiths’ Vauxhall Grandland drifting alarmingly as he headed north past Junction 36 between 1.30pm and 2pm on August 6 last year.
One witness gave a call handler an animated running commentary while his dash-cam captured 45-year-old Griffiths’ SUV veering from lane three, completely off the road at one stage and buffeting the central reservation barrier.
Griffiths then parked up on chevron markings between a junction slip road and lane one, before getting out of his vehicle and stepping perilously close to passing vehicles, including HGVs. “This man is in danger,” the witness stated, yelling to Griffiths: “Get out of the road.”
Griffiths got back in his SUV, pulling directly into the path of a campervan before veering across motorway lanes near Tebay in worsening wet weather conditions described as “atrocious”.
The witness formed the opinion Griffiths was drunk but police breath and drug wipe tests proved negative. Airbags in his vehicle had deployed. A urine sample revealed the presence of metabolised morphine and codeine which, the prosecution accepted, could have come from the overuse of co-codamol.
Griffiths had described taking an extra 50mg of antidepressant sertraline amid confusion over whether he had consumed an earlier dose and took co-codamol. He left work in Preston due to feeling “funny”, had a Red Bull and headed for home but remained on the M6.
Holly Nelson, defending Griffiths, of Lancaster Road, Morecambe, said he should not have remained in the vehicle. He had admitted charges of dangerous driving and driving while unfit through drugs.
Passing sentence at Carlisle Crown Court today, Judge Nicholas Barker described the witness’s footage as “extraordinary”, Griffiths’ vehicle being “grossly out of control” and the risks posed as “extreme”.
Griffiths was “entirely confused and disorientated”, “wholly ill-equipped and incapable of driving”, said Judge Barker, who had “no idea” whether extra medication was responsible, as no scientific evidence had been provided.
But he said: “It causes the court genuine concern that if a person has taken an extra dose they are then essentially unaware of the fact they are driving in this manner. If that is right then manufacturers, prescribers of that medication should take a good deal of care to inform those who take it.”
Griffiths received an 18-month community order comprising unpaid work and a night-time curfew; an 18-month driving ban; and was ordered to take an extended re-test.
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