Crash driver blames fatigue on 10hr week
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• An agency driver working for Wincanton Logistics who hit a car and injured two people after nodding off at the wheel has blamed 60 to 70-hour working weeks for his fatigue.
Gloucestershire magistrates at Stroud heard that driver Mark Dutton was travelling north on the M5 in Gloucestershire on 27 May when he fell asleep. The ERF left the main carriageway and mounted the grass embankment and, although Dutton struggled to regain control, he
managed only to drive it at right angles across the three northbound lanes.
Dutton's truck then collided with a car, seriously injuring the driver and passenger before smashing through the central reservation.
The court heard that Dutton had been going through a marriage break-up and had left his job of 12 years-to work for a driver agency Dutton said that the shift work meant that he was doing 60 to 70-hour weeks and get ting little sleep.
"My body clock at the time was all over the place," he said. "I've been driving lorries for 15 or 16 years but I've never, ever once had an accident."
Dutton, who was disqualified from driving after admitting dangerous driving, will be sentenced on 4 December.
A spokesman for Wincanton Logistics says the company takes "every practical step to ensure that drivers working for agencies work well within the rules".