Driver on way to gym crashed car day after smoking cannabis

A GYM-GOER on his way to pump iron crashed on a roundabout and slammed into railings a day after puffing on cannabis.

Oskar Blackowiak, 20, smashed up his Ford Fiesta at the junction of Churchill Street and the A1058 Coast Road at Wallsend, North Tyneside.

He was found in the driver’s seat with his passenger standing in the road by a passing police patrol on Tuesday, August 25, a court heard.

Blackowiak, of Hartside Crescent, Moorside, Backworth, claimed the accident happened due to wet road conditions. But a blood sample also showed he was over the drug-drive limit for cannabis derivative THC.

The welder has now been banned from the roads for 12 months after pleading guilty to drug-driving and careless driving.

Prosecutor Paul Anderson told South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court: “It seems that, quite by chance, police come across the accident. The defendant has lost control of his vehicle and careered across a roundabout and into a metal fence.

“There was a strong smell of cannabis coming from the vehicle. He gave his name and said how he had come to end up in that situation.

Blackowiak’s sample showed a level of THC higher than 7mcgs in a litre of blood. The legal limit is 2mcgs.

Karen Minhas, defending, said: “On the day in question, Mr Blackowiak was on his way to the gym, he was just going about his business. He accepts that he had consumed some cannabis the day before and it was still in his system.

“He had only just started using cannabis during lockdown, he had been struggling to sleep and thought that it would assist him.”

Blackowiak, who is of previous good character, was also fined £323, with £85 court costs and a £34 victim surcharge, all for the drug-drive charge.