Asleep at the wheel driver is spared jail

A Cowie driver who fell asleep at the wheel after a night shift – colliding with another car and injuring its driver – was last week ordered to carry out unpaid work.

David Symon, of Berryhill, who had admitted a charge of dangerous driving, was also banned from the road for 16 months.

The 24-year-old had driven a car on the B9140 near Fishcross on July 29, 2021, while tired and fell asleep, losing control of the vehicle.

The car had entered the opposite carriageway and into the path of an oncoming motor car being driven by another motorist who was seriously injured in the smash.

When the matter called for sentence at Stirling Sheriff Court last week, Symon’s solicitor Frazer Mccready told Sheriff Derek Hamilton that an“extremely favourable”report had been prepared – and it could be dealt with through a non-custodial sentence.

Symon had expressed

“extreme remorse”and would never be in court again, he said.

Sheriff Hamilton pointed out that deliberate dangerous driving was“easy to see and recognise.”

The matter before the court was“less easy to recognise, but is equally as serious.”

Falling asleep at the wheel after a night shift, he added, amounted to dangerous driving.

There could be no benefit sending Symon into custody, but the seriousness of the matter had to be recognised.

He added that the sentence“in no way diminishes the effect your driving had on the people involved in this accident.”

Sheriff Hamilton sentenced Symon to a Community Payback Order comprising 170 hours’ unpaid work – reduced from 250 hours’due to an early guilty plea. Symon was also banned from the road for a period of 16 months reduced from 24 months – and was also ordered to resit his driving test.