Drugs found in cab after fatal crash
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• A driver accused of causing death by dangerous driving may have been high on cannabis when he nodded off at the wheel of his truck on the M25, the Old Bailey heard this week. Two men died in the resulting crash.
Nearly six grainmes of cannabis were found in Andrew Cox's cab along with Rizlas and rolling tobacco after the accident. But because a police doctor said there were no medical grounds for blood and urine tests, it was never discovered if the driver was under the influence of cannabis at the time of the seven vehicle pile-up.
Yet the jury at the Old Bailey heard how Cox had glazed eyes and difficulty speaking, and "slipped off his chair and started crying like a baby".
He is in the dock along with three basses of haulage firm Roy Bowles Transport—Stephen and Julie Bowles and company secretary Victor Gilliard—who are accused of manslaughter after allegedly working Cox to a state of deep exhaustion, All three deny the charges.
Two men died in the sevenvehicle pile up after Cox's arctic hit a skip loader near Ockenden, Essex, on the M25 on 16 October 1997. Cox denies causing death by dangerous driving.
Prosecuting, Sir Derek Spencer QC described Cox as "an accident walling to happen".
An earlier witness, Nicholas Scott, told the court he was driving home when he saw the horrific smash: "I could see a lorry hitting the central reservation square on the barrier and I realised the wheels of this lorry were above the level of the roof of my car," he said, 1 could see lots of car parts flying up in the air and heard the noise of colliding vehicles."
The trial continues.