A council worker tested positive for drugs after the trailer he was towing collided with a pedestrian leaving him with serious injuries – but a court hearing was told that his drug driving did not lead to the crash.
Welshpool Magistrates' Court was told that the consumption of cannabis had "nothing to do" with the collision which happened in Newtown earlier this year.
Jake Tisdale was driving a 7.5 tonne lorry, owned by Powys County Council, along New Road towards Llanidloes Road on May 12 when the trailer came loose and hit a man walking along the pavement near St David's Church.
Helen Tench, prosecuting, told the court: "The lorry came to the traffic lights, and as it moved the trailer collided with a pedestrian causing significant injuries. That is a matter for a separate investigation. An arrest was made and a level of cannabis was found."
Tisdale, of Ceiriog, Newtown, pleaded guilty to having 3.7 micrograms of Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol, the major psychoactive component of cannabis, which was just over the legal limit of three micrograms per litre of blood.
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Robert Hanratty, acting for Tisdale, told the court: "It was an unfortunate accident which had nothing to do with the consumption of cannabis.
"He was a junior worker within a large organisation who was tasked with taking the vehicle which he had been trained to pull a trailer only a matter of months before.
"Somebody had pitched it to a vehicle, a local authority vehicle, and unbeknown to him a component that holds the lynch in had come loose. He was extremely distressed at the police station. It was an unexpected incident.
"He confessed consuming cannabis a couple of days before. Cannabis stays in the system. There was no evidence of impaired driving.
"He doesn’t know the impact this may have on his employment. He's a hardworking man with all the right attitudes. It was a very distressing incident.
"I believe the HSE are more concerned about the employers than getting a junior worker taking a trailer up the road."
Tisdale was given a 12-month driving ban.
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