A LORRY driver involved in a fatal crash had been smoking drugs just hours before the incident, a court heard this week.
Zahid Mohammad is alleged to have smoked cannabis at some point during the eight hours before his 7.5-tonne lorry collided with a car in Maldon Road, Goldhanger, in September 2011 killing Maldon man Robert Barnard.
The 35-year-old, from Forest Gate in London, pleaded not guilty to causing death by dangerous driving when he appeared at Chelmsford Crown Court this week.
Prosecutor Jamie Sawyer told the jury: "At the time this defendant, a professional HGV driver, had a relatively high cannabis reading in his blood."
He said: "It's likely Mohammad smoked cannabis" during his break before the accident.
The crash happened on the afternoon of September 9, 2011, and Mr Barnard, 59, died at the scene, trapped in his Ford Fiesta after suffering multiple injuries – just two miles away from his home of 57 years.
The court heard that Mohammad's vehicle drifted into the opposite lane on a gentle left-hand bend and collided with the front of Mr Barnard's car, causing massive damage and spinning it off the road.
Mr Sawyer told jurors that accident investigators concluded that the point of impact was substantially within the Fiesta's lane, even though both vehicles were travelling at the same speed.
In an interview with police at the time, Mr Mohammad, an agency driver with a sheet metal company in Hainault, claimed that the Fiesta was driving too fast and had crossed into his lane causing the collision, the court heard.
He said he tried to take evasive action by going on the nearside verge and he then steered into the opposite hedge.
The lorry driver denies all charges against him, and has pleaded not guilty to possession of cannabis resin allegedly found in a rucksack in his truck.
He told police he had last smoked cannabis one to two weeks before the crash.
The trial continues.
