A CHARD pensioner who crashed into a stationary vehicle after pulling out from a junction said he felt a bit drowsy at the time as he had taken too much aspirin.

Michael Sidney Victor Cousins had also just split from his wife after a 54 year marriage and said he misjudged the corner when he pulled out and collided with the car in which a young child was a passenger.

The 74-year-old defendant, of Lordsleaze Lane, pleaded guilty to driving a Honda Civic on Forton Road in Chard on April 12, 2017 without due care and attention when he appeared before Somerset Magistrates at Yeovil.

Prosecutor Thomas Faulkner said the defendant was driving his car at 6.30pm when he took a left turn from Church Street and collided with a stationary Vauxhall van waiting to turn right.

“He over calculated the junction and collided with the vehicle and Cousins accepted during his police interview that he had been taking aspirin that day,” he said.

“He said he was feeling drowsy and thought he may have taken a bit too much, and the driver of the van had his young daughter in the vehicle with him at the time.”

Louise Eaves, defending, said that Cousins had taken aspirin since suffering a heart attack and a stroke, and his 54-year long relationship with his wife had also come to an end at the time of the offence.

“He misjudged the corner coming out of the junction and clipped the van but fortunately there were no injuries,” she said.

“He stopped a short while later in his own drive and checked on the driver and admitted the offence during interview.”

She said the defendant had been driving locally around Chard since the offence and had had no further incidents.

He admitted to the police that he knew there had been a collision but said he had been a little bit drowsy at the time and the other driver lived in the area and they were known to each other.

The magistrates endorsed Cousins’ licence with six penalty points and fined him £80 with £85 costs and a £30 victim surcharge.