A DRUGGED-UP driver lost control of his car and careered head-on into a supermarket worker who was making his way to work on his motorcycle,

Defendant Daniel James Chamberlain, 44, said to be six times the limit for a cocaine-based drug, tried to flee the scene and falsely claimed that it was the victim who was on the wrong side of the road.

Chamberlain was on his way from Denbigh to Rhyl to buy more drugs after tricking his own son to use his car when the full-force collision happened on the B5381 Lower Denbigh Road towards Trefnant, on Sunday, October 21 last year.

Victim Jack Sellors was hurled up onto the roof of the car before hitting the road and suffered multiple fractures.

He was air-lifted to a specialist hospital at Stoke, still suffered the effects of the crash and would need further surgery, Mold Crown Court was told on Thursday.

Chamberlain, of Graig Terrace in Denbigh, was jailed for two-and-a-half years and banned from driving for four years and three months after he admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving, aggravated vehicle taking, drug driving, no insurance, a driving licence offence and having a flick knife in the vehicle.

Sentencing him, Judge Niclas Parry told the defendant that between October 21 and November 2 last year the victim was unable to walk.

"He suffered four pelvic fractures, and fractures to his knee cap, his wrists, his shin bone and a right hand finger with ruptured tendons,"

the judge said.

The victim had been struck head-on, with full force, by the vehicle Chamberlain was driving, and he remembered screaming in pain on the night.

Seven months on, he was unable to ride or work on his motorcycle, he could not play his guitar and could not go for walks.

He could not walk upstairs without pain and he was awaiting further surgery.

"All that arises out of your decision to drive your son's motor vehicle.

He asked you specifically not to drive but you deceived him," said judge Parry.

He was six times the limit of a class A drug, was not insured to drive, and "inevitably you lost control".

Judge Parry said that he went around a bend, cross the centre white lines and "ploughed straight into your victim".

He warned: "You could have killed him."

The defendant, who was vulnerable through drug use, had previous convictions for 32 offences including two for drink driving and one for driving while disqualified. He had five convictions for possessing drugs

- one since the collision occurred.

"It is aggravated by the fact that you tried to flee the scene despite the obvious injuries you had caused," he said.

Prosecuting barrister Karl Scholz told how Mr Sellors left his home at

4.30pm to ride his motorcycle for a shift at Morrisons supermarket.

As he approached a left-hand bend, he saw a Vauxhall Astra approach with tyres screeching and he realised the driver had lost control.

It crossed the road directly into his path and hit him head on. The impact threw him from the motorcycle onto the roof of the car then onto the road.

He did not lose consciousness, felt immediate immense pain to the shoulder, both wrists, his pelvic area and left leg.

After being airlifted to hospital, the fractures were fixed but he would need further surgery when plates and bolts would be removed.

On November 1, he was transferred to Ysbyty Glan Clwyd in Bodelwyddan and was discharged on November 7, but his left leg was in a brace, he walked with a frame and needed a wheelchair.

Passers-by directed traffic awaiting the arrival of the emergency services and the defendant was seen on his phone.

It was believed a friend came to pick him up and he was seen getting into a vehicle.

But, one of the witnesses stood in front of the vehicle and told him to await the arrival of the police.

Chamberlain said at the scene and later to the police that the motorcyclist was on the wrong side of the road, but Mr Scholz said a collision investigation plainly showed that was not the case.

The defendant said he was on his way to Rhyl to buy heroin and cocaine and he was found to have a reading of 299 miligrammes of BZE, a cocaine derivative, which was six times the limit of 50.

The car belonged to his son.

He had called at his son's workplace and said he had left something in the vehicle when he previously had a lift.

He was given the keys to retrieve his property and had been specifically told not to drive it.

Interviewed a second time, he accepted what he had done but said he was on the way to hospital due to sepsis.

He had forgotten about the knife which he said he used to cut baling twine.

Defending barrister Simon Killeen said that his client knew custody was inevitable.

He had mental health issues, took medication and for a number of years took anti-psychotic medication.

"The ravages of drugs over a period of time have left him in the state that you see him in now," he told the judge.

He could not sleep, and he felt suicidal following the realisation of what he had done.

"Whatever he said and did at the scene, and immediately thereafter, he had the good sense to admit it was his fault," said Mr Killeen.

Chamberlain was a lonely and vulnerable man living alone.

He and his wife separated five years ago and effectively he had been unable to beat his drugs issues for over 20 years.

Mr Killeen said it was his client's case that he was on the way to hospital at the time of the crash, but he accepted that after that he wanted to go and buy some more drugs.