A driver sneezed so violently he lost contol of his car and crashed into a wall, Douglas magistrates were told.
James David Comish’s Honda Civic was abandoned in the middle of the road after the 1.30am accident which happened three days before Christmas.
The 32-year-old told court, as he was unhurt and his mobile telephone battery was flat, he decided to walk home and had been unable to report the accident.
’The car was severely damaged and left in the middle of the carriageway,’ he said.
’The driver was nowhere to be seen but the car was registered to the defendant. Police went to his home address but there was no answer and his mobile telephone was engaged.’
When they returned a few hours later at 8.30am, Comish accepted it was his car and told them about the sneezing incident.
’Rather than wait for another vehicle to pass, he went home. We accept he might have had difficulty reporting it straight away,’ said Mr Swain.
Comish, of Ballacriy Park in Colby, admitted careless driving on December 22. Charges of failing to stop after the accident or report it were withdrawn on the grounds that it was a Manx stone wall that was damaged and there was no one nearby to whom it could reasonably be reported.
Defending Comish, Stephen Wood said as a director of a joinery company, the defendant’s driving licence was essential to him, particularly as he lived out of town.
’He needs his vehicle for his job and this should be borne in mind in sentencing.
’He sneezed,’ he said, adding the act was involuntary and could, technically, give rise to a defence of automatism, however, this was not being pursued.
Magistrates’ chairman Brian Walton fined him £500, his licence was endorsed with five points and he pays £50 costs.