A van driver who fell asleep at the wheel and then crashed into an oncoming car has been jailed for 14 months.
Elliott Caswell Maclagen Doughlin (55) was also banned from the roads for three years and ordered to retake the driving test afterwards.
The Royal Court heard on Friday that Doughlin was driving north along Grande Route de Saint Pierre on the afternoon of 25 August last year while a man was driving a Mercedes in the opposite direction with one passenger.
Crown Advocate Lauren Hallam, prosecuting, said Doughlin’s van suddenly swerved into their lane and collided with the car.
She said police arrived at the scene and found debris strewn across the road and the Mercedes driver and his passenger both badly injured.
The driver had a fractured rib and fractured vertebra while his passenger had concussion, large swelling on her hip, and a broken nose – which required an operation under general anaesthetic.
Doughlin, who was uninjured, said he had dozed off briefly.
He admitted taking cannabis for many years as pain relief and had consumed some earlier that day.
Advocate Hallam said that the Mercedes driver had spent two weeks in hospital and had needed several weeks of physiotherapy afterwards, and has still not fully recovered.
And his passenger said she felt she had “lost six months of her life”.
The advocate recommended a sentence of 18 months.
When he appeared in the Magistrate’s Court on 6 March, Doughlin pleaded guilty to the charge of causing injury by driving without due care and attention while unfit to drive through drugs.
He was deemed at low risk of re-offending, so Advocate Debbie Corbel, defending, argued for a community service order or a suspended sentence instead of prison.
She said of Doughlin: “His remorse is quite apparently genuine. He voluntarily ceased driving before he was ordered to.
“He wants to apologise to the two victims in person. All the way through he has asked about their welfare.”
But Deputy Bailiff Robert MacRae said: “These offences are so serious that only a custodial sentence can be justified.”
Jurats Ronge and Entwistle were sitting.