Ingham court: Janessa Cowan, Wesley Carr, Bobby Henning on traffic charges

A Woolworths’ delivery driver lost her job after she smoked cannabis and crashed her truck into a car that she failed to see at an intersection, a North Queensland court was told.

Former Woolworths' delivery driver Janessa Kate Cowan pleaded guilty in the Ingham Magistrates Court on Thursday to failing to give way to a vehicle and drug driving in relation to a traffic crash in Halifax, Hinchinbrook, on July 20. Picture: Cameron Bates

A Woolworths’ delivery driver lost her job after she smoked cannabis and crashed her truck into a car that she failed to see at an intersection, a North Queensland court was told.

Janessa Kate Cowan pleaded guilty in the Ingham Magistrates Court on Thursday to failing to give way to the vehicle and drug driving in relation to the crash in Halifax, Hinchinbrook, on July 20.

Prosecutor Nathan Smith said police were called to the accident on the intersection of Macrossan and Alma streets at 10.30am.

“Questioned (by police) she admitted she never saw the vehicle coming on her left as she entered the intersection,” he said.

“She admitted to recent cannabis use.”

There were no injuries as a result of the accident, he said.

Cowan, who was self-represented, said she took cannabis for pain and anxiety but had not used it since the accident.

Questioned by Magistrate Cathy McLennan, the single mother confirmed that she had subsequently lost her job with Woolworths as a result of the incident and was now unemployed.

Cowan was fined the ticketable amount of $483 for failing to give way and suspended from driving for four months for drug driving.

Magistrate McLennan said she had reduced the period of disqualification due to the fact that Cowan had lost her job and had an “otherwise excellent traffic history and no criminal history”.

Ingham Magistrates Court and Ingham Police Station. Picture: Cameron Bates

Wesley Carr

Also appearing in the same court on the same day in relation to a traffic accident, Wesley Norman Carr pleaded guilty to driving just under three times the legal allowable limit in a bizarre incident in Bambaroo on September 18.

Mr Smith said police were called to Probert Road to find Queensland Ambulance Service paramedics as well as a Queensland Fire Department crew attending to the driver of a Toyota HiLux, which was laying on its side in a private driveway at 5.16am.

“He’s unharmed, it’s a single-vehicle crash, he’s advised police that he was grading the driveway of the address and hit a culvert while travelling approximately 5 kilometres (an hour),” he said.

“He said he hadn’t seen the culvert and wasn’t looking where he was going.”

Mr Smith said Carr recorded a blood-alcohol content reading of 0.141, well over the middle BAC limit but just under the high UIL limit.

Carr said he was unaware that it was an offence to drive a private vehicle on a private property after drinking.

Asked by Magistrate McLennan why he was grading the road when drunk, Carr said he was “just bored”.

He was convicted, fined $300 and disqualified from driving for three months.

Magistrate McLennan said the disqualification period would have been higher if he was on a public road.

An Ingham Police vehicle outside the Ingham Magistrates Court. Picture: Cameron Bates

Bobby Henning

Bobby John Henning also appeared in the Ingham Magistrates Court on Thursday, pleading guilty to high-range drink driving (UIL).

Mr Smith said Henning, 39, a concreter, was busted at a police checkpoint on Fulton Dr in Bemerside between the Bruce Highway and Halifax at 5.15pm on Friday, September 13.

Defence lawyer Zachary Salatnay of Donnelly Law Group said his client, who blew 0.151, had been drinking during the day as he laid a slab of concrete.

“He consumed several drinks throughout the day (thinking they) were mid-strength beer but later learned that they were full-strength.”

He said Carr, a married father of three, had arranged to be picked up from work “so he did not need to drive for the remainder of the night”.

“Later that evening he was reminded by (a relative) that he’d promised to take him to a party,” he said.

“As Mr Henning felt he had spaced out his drinks during the day, he unfortunately believed that he wasn’t going to be over the legal limit,” he said.

“However, he did not take into account the strength of the beer and the fact he was working out in the sun and had not had anything to eat or drink throughout the day.”

Mr Salatnay said his client would lose his job for the period of any licence disqualification, urging the minimum-mandatory period.

Henning’s excuse did not wash with presiding Magistrate McLennan, who noted two prior, though dated, convictions for drink-driving, a serious offence.

“I find the submissions made on your behalf somewhat disingenuous in the circumstances when the reading was 0.151, which is three times the legal limit; you must have known that you were over the legal limit.”

Carr was convicted, fined $1100 and disqualified from driving for six months.

Originally published as Ingham court: Janessa Cowan, Wesley Carr, Bobby Henning on traffic charges