Lorry driver filmed ‘dancing in seat’ before ‘catastrophic’ crash, trial …
A man accused of dangerous driving took his hands off the wheel multiple times before ramming into stationary traffic, a court has heard. Ivan Zhyhan has been accused of driving ‘dangerously’ on the M11 southbound on February 13, 2019 shortly before 10pm.
His trial began today, April 24, at Basildon Crown Court, where barrister Miss Sweetland, opened the case for the prosecution. A jury heard Zhyhan was driving a large goods vehicle with a full container on the back down the M11 motorway towards London when he crashed into a queue of stationary traffic ahead of him.
Miss Sweetland said Zhyhan was travelling between 46 and 48 miles per hour when he hit the vehicle in front of him, which was a small Renault van. The van was propelled forwards and the driver was crushed against the lorry in front of him in the queue.
Miss Sweetland said: “[The driver of the van] suffered catastrophic injuries.” These injuries included a skull fracture, fractured vertebrae, and seven broken ribs, among other injuries.
The van driver spent more than four weeks in hospital. The court heard that following the crash, he had to be freed from the wreckage of his van and was finally taken to hospital.
A witness to the incident, driving the lorry in front of the van, has described the moment of the crash. Miss Sweetland summarised his evidence, saying he described traffic inching forwards when he felt a violent blow from behind – this was the van crashing into his lorry.
Another witness, a paramedic, was also in the queue and was able to stop and give emergency help to the van driver as well as to liaise with the ambulance service rushing to the scene. The paramedic witness noted Zhyhan seemed “calm and unfazed” by what had happened, and that the defendant never asked about the condition of the casualty.
Zhyhan was arrested and taken to Harlow police station, where he was interviewed the following day. It was confirmed through questioning that he was employed by a haulage company and had started his shift that day at 5pm.
He told police he had felt tired earlier in his shift and had slept for 15 minutes, but had started to feel tired again during the last leg of his journey, before the crash. However, he did not stop for rest, the court heard.
The court also saw footage played from the inside of Zhyhan’s cab before the incident. Zhyhan can be seen dancing in his seat, taking first one hand and then both hands of the wheel several times, and rubbing his eyes and yawning.
During the police investigation following the crash, a specialist officer determined that the amount of time Zhyhan had to react to the stationary queue of traffic after seeing it was 14 seconds. The cab dashcam footage shows Zhyhan only reacting one second before the impact, and then simply sitting in the cab and peering over the windscreen for several moments before finally leaving the cab.
The jury heard Zhyhan has accepted that the crash was his fault, but has denied that his driving was ‘dangerous’ that evening. Miss Sweetland explained that dangerous driving under the Road Traffic Act “can be described as something that falls far below standard of the competent and careful driver which can be obvious would be dangerous.”
She concluded by saying: “The prosecution say this was not just careless, but that the evidence reveals such a failure to pay sufficient attention to the road over such a period of time and in such conditions, driving a loaded large goods vehicle at 50mph on the motorway that it can only be described as dangerous.”
The trial continues.
References
- ^ Essex driver overtook on blind bend and crashed into full taxi (www.essexlive.news)