A 44-year-old care worker who crashed into a parked car and hit a pedestrian has been fined £600 for careless driving.

Beverley Jane Kirlew was also banned from driving for six months under the totting up process as she already had eight points on her licence previously.

Kirlew, who lives at Keppel Road in Douglas, pleaded guilty to the offence, as well as two counts of having a defective tyre.

Prosecuting advocate James Robinson told the court that, on September 20 at 7.55pm, Kirlew’s Vauxhall Astra was involved in a collision on Jurby Road in Lezayre.

A Ford Transit van and Honda were parked at the side of the road.

Kirlew’s Astra hit the Honda and then also struck the owner of the Ford Transit who suffered no serious injury.

Both her rear tyres were later also found to be devoid of tread, though this was not deemed to have contributed to the accident.

When interviewed by police, Kirlew said that she had been travelling towards Ramsey and that the sun was low.

She said that she saw a car on her side of the road but had misjudged the distance. She said that after the initial impact everything went blurred.

Kirlew said that the sun was the major factor in the accident.

Defence advocate James Peterson entered a basis of plea for his client in which Kirlew reiterated her statement that the sun was very low and had been a major contributory factor.

She said that she was about to pull in, but had misjudged the distance, and had only been driving between 15 and 20mph at the time.

Mr Robinson said it was accepted that there was no evidence of any speeding and that the prosecution view was that Kirlew had not adapted her driving sufficiently to the conditions.

The court heard that she had received six penalty points in May 2019 for failing to conform to a traffic direction and having no insurance, and two points in June 2019 after receiving a fixed penalty notice for speeding.

Defence advocate Mr Peterson said that his client would lose her employment, working for a care company, if she were banned from driving but conceded that this did not constitute an exceptional circumstances argument.

‘It was a low speed collision. An incident where unfortunately the sun has been a major factor,’ said the advocate.

‘Ms Kirlew did take steps to reduce her speed and stop, but unfortunately she misjudged the distance.’

Mr Peterson asked for credit to be given for his client’s guilty pleas.

High Bailiff Jayne Hughes fined Kirlew £300 for careless driving, and £150 for each of the defective tyres.

Her licence was endorsed with six points for the careless driving, bringing her total to 14.

She was also ordered to pay £50 prosecution costs.

She will pay all amounts at a rate of £20 per fortnight deducted from benefits.