A man from Leeds has been sentenced after causing a serious collision in which two innocent people were seriously hurt.
The incident happened in March 2015. Aaron Tinker, aged 30 and from Seacroft, Leeds, admitted two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, and driving while over the proscribed drug drive limit.
Mr Tinker lost control of his 1 Series BMW at the junction of Hall Green Lane, Dunkeswick Lane and the A658 in North Rigton near Harrogate and ploughed into two cars.
A man and a woman, who were travelling in different cars, both sustained serious injuries. Fortunately, there were no fatalities.
He was found to have cannabis in his system and tests showed he was over the prescribed drug drive limit at the time of the collision, in mid-March last year.
He appeared at York Crown Court yesterday (17.03.16), where he received a 21-month suspended prison sentence with 280 hours of unpaid community work. He was also banned from driving for three years and ordered to pay £1,500 in court costs.
Following the sentencing, Sergeant Julian Pearson of North Yorkshire Police’s Roads Policing Group said:
This case clearly highlights the potentially-lethal combination of drugs and driving.This was a horrific collision that left two innocent motorists with serious and sustained injuries. The saving grace is that, miraculously, nobody was killed.
New drug driving laws were introduced just days before this incident. This ensured we could not only charge Tinker with dangerous driving, we could also hold him to account for the very stupid decision he made to get behind the wheel after consuming drugs.
Today’s sentence sends out a clear message that this sort of behaviour will not be tolerated on our roads, and we will do whatever it takes to catch perpetrators and bring them to justice.
