'My life fell apart': Shrewsbury lorry driver confronted man in McDonald's car park then got in A49 crash with him before 'disappearing'
A lorry driver whose "life fell apart" after the death of his father got into an altercation in a McDonald's car park then was later involved in a crash with the man he had been arguing with - but left the scene before police arrived.
Craig Edge had "disappeared" from the scene of the crash on the A49 by the time officers arrived on the scene, Telford Magistrates Court heard this week.
Police were called to the scene just outside Hadnall at around 2am on June 7 last year, to reports a Ford Mondeo had hit a Volkswagen.
Prosecutor Kate Price told the court the officers arrived on the scene to find the Volkswagen in a field, its driver in the back of an ambulance and the heavily damaged Mondeo on its roof - with its driver nowhere to be seen.
They spoke to the Volkswagen driver, who told them he had been confronted in a McDonald's car park in Shrewsbury earlier that night by the man who had been driving the Mondeo. He told the officers the other man had left his own vehicle and tried to get to him during the confrontation, he left and the collision on the A49 occurred later that night.
Police checked CCTV records at the McDonald's restaurant in Battlefield, quickly identified Craig Edge as the Mondeo driver and arrested him at his girlfriend's house in the town at 4.30am.
He told the officers he had been given a lift after the crash and hadn't drank or taken drugs. Blood samples taken later that morning revealed he had 11 micrograms of cocaine per litre of blood (the legal limit is 10mcg per litre) as well as 272mcg of benzoylecgonine (BZE), a byproduct of cocaine, per litre (the limit is 50mcg per litre).
Edge, of Lancaster Road in Shrewsbury, later pleaded guilty to failing to stop after an accident, failing to report the accident, leaving a vehicle in a dangerous position and two counts of drug driving (one relating to cocaine and one to BZE). He attended Telford Magistrates Court this week to be sentenced.
