Drink and drug driver may not have been aware he hit a pedestrian

But a judge sitting at Bolton Crown Court has ruled that Steven Hindley, 42, may not have even been aware of the collision in Lowton.

Judge Graeme Smith observed that the driver had been travelling along the pavement for some considerable way before the incident though.

The judge also banned him from driving for 28 months and ordered him to take an extended driving test before he is allowed back onto the roads again.

Hindley, of Scott Road, Lowton, had pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, failing to stop after an accident, drug-driving and driving with excess alcohol during an earlier hearing at Wigan and Leigh Magistrates Court.

He had been committed for crown court sentencing but another judge, Timothy Stead, decided that a fresh hearing was required to determine the motorist’s degree of responsibility for the collision.

Defence counsel Patrick Buckley told that hearing; “The defendant denies any knowledge of having hit anyone, which clearly would make a difference when it comes to sentence.”

The court heard that there were “three distinct parts” to the incident, which had begun with Hindley’s car colliding with a pedestrian on the pavement.

Hindley and the pedestrian were then involved in a confrontation, the court was told, before the defendant drove off.

He was then involved in what was described as a “significant police chase” before he was arrested and later charged.

Mr Buckley told the court that his client was not taking issue with what had happened after the collision and his later driving but disputed any knowledge of hitting the pedestrian.