THIS is the moment a dozing driver ploughed into a stranger when his foot slipped onto the accelerator.
Abdelrahman Awadalla was catching up on sleep after a weekend at Boomtown music festival near Winchester, Hampshire, when he accidentally jerked the BMW forward.
SuppliedAbdelrahman Awadalla fell asleep at the wheel of his car and hit the accelerator[/caption]
SuppliedHe struck Martin Gartland (blurred) and Imdadul Kader (highlighted in yellow)[/caption]
SuppliedAwadalla was handed a 27 month sentence[/caption]
Shocking CCTV footage captured the 27-year-old’s saloon speed across Victoria Road, North Acton, and into the path of pedestrian Martin Gartlan during rush hour last August.
The project manager was carried on the bonnet before the car crashed into two poles and a tree.
Sleep-deprived raver Awadalla emerged from the smash unscathed.
He put something beneath his victim’s head then retrieved his belongings from the boot and fled when he heard sirens, a court heard.
Mr Gartlan broke almost every single rib and suffered a fractured neck and leg.
His heart stopped when he was being worked on by medics, he was in an induced coma for 10 days and he spent five weeks in the intensive care unit at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington.
Another pedestrian – Imdadul Kader – was also hit by the speeding car, but escaped with relatively light injuries.
At Southwark crown court on Friday, former psychology and criminology uni student Abdelrahman wiped away tears as his victim said he held “no animosity” towards the driver who nearly killed him.
In an impact statement read to the judge by prosecutor Steven Molloy, Mr Gartlan said: “I have worked my whole life.
“I cannot understand why I couldn’t get to work safely that morning without something like this happening.”
Abdelrahman pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to causing serious injury by dangerous driving and causing actual bodily harm.
Caging him for 27 months, Judge Sally-Ann Hales KC said: “On August 13, you drove back from a festival having had little or no sleep for the previous three days and probably still affected by the alcohol and cannabis you had taken the previous night.
“You parked in a side road because you no doubt appreciated you were not fit to drive.
“But the state you were in meant you fell asleep at the wheel without safely securing the car.
“As a consequence, you injured two people – one of them very seriously.
“Those offences – combined – are so serious the only appropriate sentence is one of immediate custody.”
Awadalla, of Acton, West London, spoke only to say “yes boss” when asked his name by the court clerk.
But he told of his remorse in a letter to the judge, writing: “I will take any sentence you will give me but just know my time in custody has changed me a lot.”
Defence barrister Kane Sharpe described Abdelrahman as genuinely remorseful.
He had asked after the victim’s condition at every single meeting they had had together.
The former uni student, who has 16 previous convictions including for drug dealing, was banned from driving for three years.
Mr Gartland was placed in an induced coma after the collision
“But the state you were in meant you fell asleep at the wheel without safely securing the car.
“As a consequence, you injured two people – one of them very seriously.
“Those offences – combined – are so serious the only appropriate sentence is one of immediate custody.”
Awadalla, from Acton, only spoke once in court, saying “yes boss” when asked his name by the court clerk.
But he told of his remorse in a letter to the judge, writing: “I will take any sentence you will give me but just know my time in custody has changed me a lot.”
Defence barrister Kane Sharpe described Awadalla as genuinely remorseful.
According to him, Awadalla had asked after the victim’s condition at every single meeting they had had together.
The former uni student, who has 16 previous convictions including for drug dealing, was banned from driving for three years.
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