Mansfield Magistrates court, Rosemary Street.
A Mansfield drug driver was “zoned out” when he veered across the central line and struck a car carrying a family of four on a birthday outing, a court heard.
Andrew Stevens hit two vehicles in his black Audi A3 on the A60 between Mansfield and Nottingham, at 10.15am on August 13 last year, said Catherine Wilson, prosecuting.
He smashed into a silver Audi A1 which contained a family, celebrating the son’s birthday, and was travelling slowly because of traffic.
Their car span 180 degrees and the father, whose right arm was lacerated, had to force his door open to get out.
His wife’s eye was cut and “bleeding terribly”. She was rushed to hospital in a separate ambulance, due to fears of internal bleeding, after sustaining three broken ribs. His young daughter, whose nose was bleeding, kept asking what would have happened if they had all died.
Witnesses said Stevens appeared “awake but zoned out” and wasn’t looking where he was going at the point of impact.
Stevens also collided with the side of a second car containing a man and his daughter. The driver remembered saying: “Brace yourself we’re going to crash.”
A blood test revealed Stevens had 240 microgrammes of a cocaine derivative when the limit is 50 microgrammes, as well as traces of methadone and morphine.
He kept falling asleep during the police interview, denied being a drug user, and said he didn’t realise he had swerved across the road.
The court heard he was “quite heavily convicted,” with offences including drug possession from before 2022.
Nichola Thorpe, mitigating, said he deserved credit for his plea but couldn’t remember what happened.
“He hasn’t driven since,” she said. “He accepted cocaine would have been in his system but he didn’t take any on that day. He feels devastated by what happened and grateful that no one was more seriously injured.”
He has been clean from heroin for two years after a 15-year addiction, Ms Thorpe added.
Stevens, 54, of Meadow Cottages, Mansfield Woodhouse, admitted causing serious injury by careless driving, drug driving, and driving without insurance, when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on August 21.
On Tuesday he received an 18-week sentence, suspended for 12 months, with probation activities. He must pay £239 in costs and was banned for three years.
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