Death-crash nurse passed out on strong painkillers
‘She was in a drugged-up state’
A NURSE who blacked out on strong painkillers at the wheel of her car and killed a grandfather heading to his granddaughter’s birthday party has been jailed for more than five years.
Cerys Price, 28, took the unprescribed Tramadol before veering on to the wrong side of the road head on into Robert Dean, 65.
Mr Dean, who was on his way to celebrate his granddaughter turning four, was killed almost instantly.
When police searched Price’s Izuzu pick-up, they found a pack of Tramadol with just 26 of the 100 tablets left.
The drug is prescription-only in the UK, but Price had picked up the pills while on holiday in Mexico.
Timothy Evans, prosecuting, said: ‘She was in no way fit to drive. She was in a drugged-up state.
‘Price was a graduate level nurse – she is an intelligent woman – and should have known how dangerous it was for her to drive in that state.’ Price and then boyfriend Jack Tinklin had set off for a camping trip but argued and she turned the car around to go home.
He said she had a seizure and slumped over the steering wheel before she drifted through the central reservation on the A467 in Newport, South Wales.
Mr Tinklin was knocked unconscious in the collision with bus driver Mr Dean’s Vauxhall Astra.
Price spent almost a month in hospital being treated for her injuries after the 2016 crash.
Mr Dean’s daughter Katherine Harris said: ‘We received the devastating news that dad had been killed while in the front garden with my children. We all punished and blamed ourselves for dad being there at that moment. Seconds either way was all that was needed. I found myself questioning why my daughter was born on that day.’
Price, of Nantyglo, South Wales, claimed she suffered an epileptic fit which caused the fatal crash.
But the nurse – the daughter of a driving insructor – was found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving to Mr Tinklin.
She was jailed for five years and four months at Cardiff Crown Court.
Judge Michael Fitton told her: ‘ You are not a person your family or friends would have expected to see in the crown court. You have destroyed your good name, you have destroyed your current career. You can, and you will, recover from this. Mr Dean has been denied that opportunity.’
Speaking after the sentencing, Sergeant Bob Witherall, of Gwent Police, added: ‘May this be a warning to other motorists as to the potentially disastrous consequences and dangers of misusing unprescribed medication and driving.’ John Dye, defending, said: ‘She made an extremely poor choice on the day. She has shown genuine remorse.’