Injury lawyer helps place fine on driver
An injury lawyer has helped a man who received personal injuries after a fight with a driver place a fine on the motorist.
The man requested a lift after a car pulled up outside a local bar, but Johnny Donaldson told him it wasn’t a taxi and after a heated argument, head butted him.
Last week, 19-year-old Donaldson, of Allars Park admitted to Jedburgh Sheriff Court that he assaulted the man in accordance to the reported injury on the High Street on December 19 2008.
Lawyer, Alasdair Fay said the victim had been standing outside a bar when a car pulled up and he asked if he could get a lift.
"The accused was a friend of the person driving the car and it was made clear to the complainer that it wasn't a taxi, and it was inappropriate to ask for a lift," Fay stated.
He added that Donaldson became "increasingly heated" and then head butted the man, which put him to the ground. "He then got into the car and off he went,” commented Mr Fay.
Defence lawyer Rory Bannerman said the injury caused by his client had not been severe but the complainer had suffered complications thereafter. Bannerman said his client and the victim had "a verbal dust-up" prior to the offence.
Sheriff Kevin Drummond observed: "Murders are often a breach of the peace with a body at the end of it. It is purely pot luck."
As a result, Drummond fined Donaldson £300, telling him: "You are now on your second assault and a point comes when you run out of luck."
Fay said the injury the victim suffered was a grazed elbow, which later developed cellulites, spending most of January in hospital with blood poisoning.
Fines on the line
In similar news, injury lawyers have been looking at drivers who speak on the phone whilst driving, in a study which proved mobile levels to be "extraordinary."
It has been revealed that in the West Country, drivers were issued a fine every five minutes - raking in an estimated £5.7 million for the Government.
Cornwall and Devon Police issued a total of 119,000 tickets for motoring violations in 2007, second only to London's Metropolitan Police.
Geoffrey Cox, MP for Torridge and West Devon, described the figures as "extraordinary." It is alarming to hear that we are the second highest in the country. The public will be understandably suspicious of that level of fines and will want substantial reassurance that they are not for revenue-raising purposes."
An injury lawyer said much more needs to be done to reduce deaths on the road due to driver distraction: "When you're on a call, even if both hands are on the wheel, your head is in the call."
Superintendent Tim Swarbrick, from Devon and Cornwall Police's operations department, said: "We lose approximately 80 people a year across Devon and Cornwall in road traffic collisions which may have been caused by people being distracted or travelling too quickly."
He added that educating drivers is the main way to reduce road accidents: "Educating motorists is our preferred option but we will enforce where we need to."
Updated on 11/05/2009