A 19-year-old tractor driver named Tyler Sowerby has escaped a prison sentence after the tractor he was driving smashed into an oncoming car outside a Royal Air Force (RAF) base in Suffolk.
The September 2022 incident, caught on CCTV camera, showed Sowerby driving his Case iH tractor while pulling a trailer "loaded with grain" down a long two-lane road with a line of traffic behind him.
A few seconds later, his tractor veered out of control and into the other side of the road before crashing a silver Honda car and flipping onto its side. Emergency services arriving at the scene were surprised the car driver managed to survive the collision and was not badly injured.
Sowerby was arrested and charged with careless driving and driving under the influence of drugs as he took amphetamine in his system during the incident. His legal counsel said he has been struggling in life, which led him to fall into a life of narcotics.
Nevertheless, he pleaded guilty on both charges and was sentenced to eight weeks in jail, which was suspended for 12 months, and a three-year ban from driving. Sowerby was also ordered to complete a rehabilitation requirement and carry out 60 hours of unpaid work.
