Man sentenced for ‘drug induced’ tractor crash

A 19-year old tractor driver has avoided a time in jail, despite causing a potentially fatal accident while under the influence of class A drugs.

Tyler Sowerby, 19, from Lazonby, Cumbria, was involved in the incident while towing a trailer of maize on the A1101 just outside the RAF Mildenhall air base in Suffolk last September.

See also: Tractor driver arrested after horror crash outside airbase

The incident was captured on CCTV from the air base, and showed the tractor veering sharply to the right and then riding over an approaching Honda Accord car, before toppling over onto its side.

The car was being driven by a US airman based at RAF Mildenhall, who was probably spared his life by virtue of the fact the vehicle was a left-hand drive model.

Can’t work out what’s going on with the tractor driver here the first swerve should have been enough to wake him up/snap his eyes off his phone and back to the road?! Car driver escaped without injury incredibly, left hand drive car. pic.twitter.com/VuarYPtjNJ

— Daniel Brown (@DanPBrown) September 28, 2022

Sowerby appeared in Carlisle Magistrates’ Court on Monday (5 June) where it was confirmed he had been over the legal driving limit for cocaine at the time of the crash.

In court, he admitted to careless driving and driving while unfit due to the influence of drugs.

The court was told of Sowerby’s “very difficult background”. He was given an eight-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, 60 hours of unpaid work and a three-year driving ban.