Patient judge !
Judge Cooke concluded Ms Stocks was also ‘clearly at fault’ by ‘inadequate monitoring of the fuel level’.
He admitted it was perhaps speculative to suggest that could have been because she had smoked cannabis, but continued: “The fact is she ran out of petrol on a motorway, creating a hazard for anybody coming behind her in her wake.”
Moral of the story.. don’t tailgate weed smokers!
A teacher has been punished after smashing into the car of a woman who had smoked cannabis, ran out of fuel on the M6 and let her dog escape onto the road.
Ian Mosley collided his Ford S-Max into McKenzie Stocks’ Fiat 500 which was sat stationary in lane 1 of the southbound carriageway between junctions 7 (for Great Barr) and 6 (for Spaghetti junction).
The 48-year-old did not give himself enough time to avoid the impact due to tailgating the vehicle in front, which suddenly pulled into lane 2 to swerve the Fiat, Birmingham Crown Court heard.
Ms Stocks, a student paramedic in her 20s, suffered a fractured skull among her injuries and blamed the crash for having a miscarriage.
Although a judge rejected the latter claim as well as concluding she also contributed to the collision.
Mosley, of North Road, Horndean in Hampshire, who is an assistant headteacher a Swanmore College in Southampton, admitted causing serious injury by careless driving.
He was sentenced to a one-year community order with 80 hours of unpaid work and banned from driving for a year.
The collision took place at 8.09pm on Friday, August 12, 2022.
Prosecutor Lynette McClement explained that the section of the M6 was a Smart motorway with all four lanes in use and no hard shoulder.
She told the court that CCTV showed Ms Stocks’ Fiat move from lane 2 to 1 before ‘braking to a halt’ without displaying its hazard lights.
Ms McClement said: “The passenger door opens. A small dog jumps out from the car running to the side of the road.
“An adult male occupant runs after the dog, retains it and gets back in the car.”
She stated the female driver, Ms Stocks, also got out, bent down and reached inside the car before getting back in.
Shortly afterwards Mosley’s Ford came up and collided into the Fiat, shunting it into the nearside barrier and throwing Ms Stocks from it.
Ms McClement added: “The Fiat had ran out of petrol which caused the vehicle to lose power and become stationary in lane 1.”
She confirmed Ms Stocks tested positive for cannabis use and was subsequently fined as well as disqualified for drug-driving.
In a victim impact statement Ms Stocks said her injuries meant she was unable to complete her student paramedic course which ‘broke my heart’ and left her in debt.
She also outlined how the incident affected her confidence and mental health, adding: “A month after the collision I found out I was pregnant.
“Due to the collision my body was unable to provide what the baby needed. I had a miscarriage at nine weeks.”
Marcus Kraehling-Smith, defending, said married father-of-three Mosley could not move to the right to avoid the collision because of traffic.
He added: “He fully accepts the injuries caused to Ms Stocks were as a result of his standard of driving falling below that of a careful and competent driver.
“He’s extremely remorseful and mortified his error caused such distress and suffering to another person.”
Judge Peter Cooke, passing sentence on Thursday, March 27, said: “On any view these events are traffic.
“You are a perfectly decent man and your driving record demonstrates you are a perfectly sensible, law-abiding and conscientious motorist.
“You have acknowledged you were at fault when you were presented with this unexpected occurrence in the road ahead of you.
“The fault was that you were too close to the vehicle you were following so that when it moved out of the way there was the Fiat ahead of you leaving you very little time to react.”
But he stated Mosley’s actions were a ‘contribution’ to the collision after he was ‘presented with a challenge you should not have been presented with’.
Judge Cooke concluded Ms Stocks was also ‘clearly at fault’ by ‘inadequate monitoring of the fuel level’.
He admitted it was perhaps speculative to suggest that could have been because she had smoked cannabis, but continued: “The fact is she ran out of petrol on a motorway, creating a hazard for anybody coming behind her in her wake.”
Judge Cooke acknowledged Ms Stocks’ injuries would have been ‘particularly distressing for a young woman’ but added: “I don’t believe I could safely conclude for these purposes that the miscarriage she unfortunately sustained is directly linked to the collision.
“Sadly, a lot of pregnancies do result in miscarriage and this was a matter of nine weeks later.”
