A drug-driver has been banned from the road after a crash which left another motorist injured and resulted in her puppy being put down.
Joseph William Coulthard Clark, 24, had taken cocaine two days before a collision which occurred on a country road near Blencogo, west of Wigton, Carlisle Magistrates’ Court heard.
Clark, in a Ford Ranger, failed to stop at a junction and careered into a car at around 3.15pm on March 1.
The woman driver of that other car suffered soft tissue shoulder damage from her seat belt and was taken to hospital. Her puppy, which had been on a passenger seat, sustained a broken spine and had to be put to sleep.
“I heard my puppy screaming beside me,” said the woman, who had rushed to check on her pet. “The rest of the incident was a blur as a result of the shock of the crash and the injury to my dog.”
She had since been on medication having suffered flashbacks and anxiety, and needed time off work.
Clark, of Braithwaite Farm, Braithwaite, near Keswick, had remained the scene and tried to assist but provided a positive drug-wipe test. It emerged he was over the legal limit for a cocaine breakdown product.
His lawyer told the court of the enormous pressure he had been under at the time, while glowing references provided in support described him as polite, extremely kind, reliable, hard-working, kind hearted and, according to his mother, also vulnerable.
He had not been on the road before and misjudged it badly.
“The decision to take cocaine, which was a couple of days prior to this, is something he bitterly regrets,” said Mark Shepherd, mitigating.
Clark — who admitted a charges of drug-driving and careless driving, and has no other convictions to his name — received a 12-month community order, must complete 80 hours’ unpaid work and a two-year driving ban.
