Nurse on painkillers ‘in no fit state to drive car’
A NURSE who had taken strong painkillers caused a fatal collision after losing control of the pick-up truck she was driving, a court heard.
Cerys Price denies causing the death of 65-year-old Robert Dean and causing serious injury to her thenboyfriend Jack Tinklin by driving dangerously. She is on trial at Cardiff Crown Court.
Opening the case, prosecutor Timothy Evans said: “The prosecution case is that Ms Price was a graduate-level nurse and should have known how dangerous it was for her to drive in that state.”
The court heard the incident happened on the A467 in Newport at about 4.30pm on July 15, 2016, when the weather was fine, dry and clear.
Prosecutors said she was driving an Isuzu D-Max pick-up truck, with Mr Tinklin as her passenger. They were going for a camping trip in the Gower.
Mr Evans told the court the couple had an argument and Price turned around to go home. The vehicle’s computer showed it was travelling at 71mph shortly before the collision.
The prosecutor said: “She went stiff and appeared to have lost control or full consciousness. They crashed over the central reservation.”
In his evidence, Mr Tinklin said: “She just seemed like she had a seizure. She made a funny noise and then she slumped on the steering wheel. We were just about to hit a lorry.”
Mr Dean was driving a Vauxhall Astra southbound on the A467 dual carriageway between the Rogerstone intersection and the Bassaleg roundabout.
Mr Evans said: “Suddenly, the Isuzu veered to the right, over the central reservation and into the opposite carriageway. It narrowly missed a lorry, but hit Mr Dean’s Astra head-on.”
The court heard a Royal Mail worker and a medical student went to help Mr Dean, who was “unconscious” and “bleeding from his mouth and nose”, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Mr Tinklin suffered spinal and abdominal injuries, as well as a softtissue injury to his wrist.
The defendant was found to have fractures to her back and arm. She also suffered swelling and tenderness to her shoulder, swelling to her ankle and tenderness to her back.
She consented to having a blood sample taken and was found to have the strong painkiller tramadol, an opioid, in her blood at a concentration of 1,803 micrograms per litre.
Mr Evans said: “It is the prosecution case that, having taken that amount of that drug, unprescribed by any doctor, she was in no way fit to drive a car. Her loss of control must have been due to her voluntarily and dangerously choosing to drive in that seriously drugged-up state.”
The court heard the side-effects of tramadol can, in normal doses, include dizziness, confusion and lack of co-ordination.
Higher doses are associated with muscle spasms, seizures and coma.
When she was interviewed by the police, the defendant said she had no recollection of what had happened leading up to the collision.
She referred to taking an called citalopram. antidepressant She later told the police she had bought tramadol in Mexico.
Price said she had last taken tramadol about two days before the incident and usually took one tablet. It is her case that she had a seizure caused by epilepsy.
Mr Evans said: “The prosecution do not accept her account about how much she had taken.”
He added: “The prosecution case is that Ms Price was a graduate-level nurse and should have known how dangerous it was for her to drive in that state. To do so falls way below the proper standards expected of drivers on our roads. She lost control in that state. A completely innocent man, simply minding his own business driving along the opposite side of the road, lost his life.
“Her boyfriend suffered serious injury. You can be sure that those awful consequences were directly caused by her dangerous driving.”
Price, 28, from Limestone Road East, Nantyglo, who is represented by John Dye, denies causing death and serious injury by dangerous driving.
The trial continues.