A TRUCKER caused “every driver’s worst nightmare” when the lorry he was driving on the wrong side of a Gwent road smashed head-on into an oncoming car, a court heard.

Abergavenny chef Luke Davies, 24, was on his way to visit his girlfriend when a 42-tonne lorry came hurtling towards him on the A465 in Monmouthshire in April this year.

Croatian Danijel Rados, 27, was jailed for 21 months yesterday [Friday, September 26] after a jury at Newport Crown Court found him guilty of a charge of dangerous driving at just before 9pm on April 17.

Rados, who had denied the charge, was just one and a half minutes from his destination and had been driving for 14 hours, with occasional breaks, when he smashed into Mr Davies’ Ford Fiesta near Llangua.

Mr Davies’ car spun 180 degrees after being hit by the lorry, which was travelling at 55.9mph, over the 40mph speed limit for HGV vehicles on that stretch of road.

Prosecution lawyer Martyn Kelly said skid marks showed Rados was driving on the wrong side of the road at the time.

Mr Davies, a chef in Wetherspoon's in Abergavenny, said he felt “like a disabled old man” after he suffered a broken hip, bruising to his head and stomach and a broken arm.

Judge David Miller told Rados: “The only reason I can find as to why you were driving on the wrong side of the road was that you were tired and confused. You had every opportunity to stop in a lay-by but you carried on.

“As a driver of a heavy vehicle you have a responsibility to treat other road users with the utmost respect.

“Luke Davies suffered life-changing injuries and five months on he’s unable to drive and work and his hip may need to be replaced.”

Rados, who pleaded not guilty, has been a lorry driver for five years but this was only his sixth visit to Britain.

In a defence statement, Rados claimed he was “fully alert” at the time of the collision and had swerved onto the other side of the road after being blinded by the lights from the oncoming Fiesta.

Rados, of Gordjostupnicka, Gornji Stupnik, a village in Zagreb, Croatia, told the jury: "From the moment I was blinded I can't remember how I reacted.

"I just can remember I was breaking as hard as I could.

"I think my reaction after the blinding from the long lights was completely automatic and I ended up on the other side of the road.

The lorry driver jumped out of his cab but tripped on a branch and lost a shoe, the court heard.

Unable to find the Nike trainer he discarded the other and ran over to the Fiesta to free Mr Davies with his socks on, the jury heard.

He tried to open a crushed door then managed to open another, picked up the driver and placed him on the grass.

The dad told Mr Davies he was sorry about what had happened before medics and police arrived at the scene.

Crash investigator, PC Chris Goddard, told the court it was possible that Rados had "forgotten which country he was in" and drove on the wrong side of the two-lane road.

After the verdict, Mr Davies, who attended the trial on crutches, said: “I’m pleased, I am happy about it. It’s like closure but it doesn’t get away from the fact of the injury. Another inch and I would have been killed.”