A DISTRAUGHT MOTORIST WHO TRIED TO COMMIT SUICIDE

A DISTRAUGHT MOTORIST WHO TRIED TO COMMIT SUICIDE BY PUMPING

EXHAUST FUMES INTO HIS CAR WAS RESCUED BY POLICE.

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AND THEN

BOOKED FOR RECKLESS DRIVING.

RICHARD COURTS WENT TO THE PUB AFTER A ROW WITH HIS WIFE.

AND WHEN HE RETURNED HE ATTACHED A HOSE TO THE EXHAUST PIPE OF HIS

ESTATE CAR AND FED IN IT THROUGH THE TAILGATE.

A SHORT WHILE LATER HE WAS SEEN DRIVING ‘SLOWLY BUT

ERRATICALLY’, BEFORE VEERING IN FRONT OF A MINI AND PLOUGHING INTO A

HGE.

HE WAS TAKEN TO HOSPITAL AND REVIVED WITH OXYGEN.

A FORENSIC

SCIENTIST TOOK A BLOOD SAMPLE AND ESTIMATED THAT THREE HOURS BEFORE

COURTS HAD BEEN OVER THE DRINK DRIVE LIMIT.

COURTS, 27, OF PARK PARADE, HAYES, WAS CHARGED WITH RECKLESS

DRIVING ON SEPTEMBER 21 LAST YEAR.

BUT YESTERDAY (TUES) AT ISLEWORTH CROWN COURT COURTS WAS

CLEARED AFTER THE JURY HEARD HE WAS VIRTUALLY UNCONSCIOUS AND WOULD

HAVE BEEN INCAPABLE OF MAKING THE DECISION TO DRIVE.

MR GWYNN ROWLAND-PRICE, PROSECUTING, TOLD THE JURY: ‘THIS

WAS A VERY BIZARRE INCIDENT BECAUSE IT APPEARS IT WAS AN ATTEMPTED

SUICIDE.

CARBON MONOXIDE WAS GOING INTO THE VEHICLE AND IN SUFFICIENT

QUANTITY IT IS A LETHAL GAS’.

HE ADDED: ‘BUT A BLOOD TEST TAKEN NEARLY THREE HOURS AFTER

THE INCIDENT REVEALED A BLOOD ALCOHOL LEVEL OF 72, 80 BEING THE LEGAL

LIMIT.

A FORENSIC SCIENTIST HAS CALCULATED THAT WITH THE

BLOOD-ALCOHOL LEVEL DECREASING, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN 107 AT THE TIME OF

THE INCIDENT — CONSIDERABLY OVER THE 80 LIMIT’ SAID MR

PRICE-ROWLANDS.

‘HE WOULD HAVE BEEN INTOXICATED’.

BUT COURTS TOLD THE JURY HE COULD REMEMBER LITTLE OF WHAT
HAPPENED.

ANSWERING QUESTIONS FROM HIS COUNSEL, MR JOHN GREAVES, HE
SAID HE HAD A ROW WITH HIS WIFE AND WENT OUT TO THE BRICKLAYERS’ ARMS

WHERE HE HAD ‘MAYBE THREE PINTS OF BEER’.

HE THEN DROVE TO HIS PARENTS HOME, PARKING THE CAR BETWEEN

TWO LORRIES IN A SERVICE ROAD OFF HARLINGTON ROAD.

THERE HE ATTACHED

THE HOSE TO THE EXHAUST PIPE, SAT IN THE CAR AND STARTED THE ENGINE.

HE COULD REMEMBER NOTHING MORE BUT THOUGHT HE MIGHT HAVE BEEN THERE

‘SOME TIME’

CONSULTANT PSYCHIATRIST PATRICK GALWAY SAID COURTS DRIVING

MUST HAVE BEEN DUE TO CARBON MONOXIDE POISONING AND NOT DRINK.

HE DESCRIBED THE SYMPTOMS OF GAS POISONING WHICH INCLUDED
BECOMING UNCONSCIOUS, THEN SLIPPING INTO A COMA BEFORE DEATH.

AND HE POINTED OUT THAT THE DRIVER OF THE MINI THOUGHT

COURTS WAS UNCONSCIOUS WHEN SHE FOUND HIM BECAUSE SHE COULD NOT GET

ANY RESPONSE FROM HIM.

‘HE HAD A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT TO DRINK BUT HE DID NOT FEEL
INTOXICATED’, SAID THE DOCTOR.

‘THAT LEVEL OF UNCONSCIOUSNESS COULD
NOT HAVE BEEN CAUSED BY ALCOHOL BECAUSE AFTER DRINKING, HE DROVE TO
HIS PARENTS HOME, THEN HE PARKED AND FITTED THE HOSE PIPE.

HE COULD

NOT HAVE DONE THAT IF HE WAS DRUNK.

I THINK HE WAS VIRTUALLY

UNCONSCIOUS WHEN HE DROVE THE CAR.

‘HIS BEHAVIOUR WAS DUE TO CARBON MONOXIDE POISONING AS A
RESULT OF A VERY SERIOUS ATTEMPT ON HIS LIFE’ CONCLUDED DR GALWAY.

ENDS

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