A council bin boss was left with the threat of prison hanging over him after he crashed on the A27 on a football match day with the police on his tail after a 90mph chase.
Terry Bridgwater, 47, a manager at the Brighton and Hove City Council rubbish and recycling depot, in Hollingdean, was given a suspended prison sentence at Lewes Crown Court today (Wednesday 11 February).
Bridgwater, of Saunders Hill, Brighton, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving on the A27 at Falmer when he appeared before Brighton magistrates last month.
Today, Judge Christine Laing, the honorary recorder of Brighton and Hove, banned him for three years and said: “I’m not convinced that you should ever be behind the wheel of a car.”
He would have to take an extended re-test before he could have his driving licence back, the judge said.
Sharn Mardner, prosecuting, said that police officers saw Bridgewater speed through the Kingston roundabout on the A27 on Saturday 3 January and pursued him with their blue lights on.
He was weaving in and out of the traffic as the police went after him, undertaking as well as overtaking and driving at speeds in excess of 90mph.
Bridgwater, spelt Bridgewater on the court list, became caught up in traffic as fans were leaving the Brighton and Hove Albion football match against Burnley at the Amex Stadium, at Falmer.
He crashed into a Range Rover, writing it off, Miss Mardner said, leaving the driver Karen Scully with whiplash and physical injuries.
She has since suffered flashbacks and had trouble sleeping and lost confidence in driving herself, even becoming nervous when out and about on foot, the court was told.
Bridgewater got out of his BMW and fled. Harriet Bennett, defending, said that he was found in a nearby field, huddled in a ball and crying.
Today, he appeared by video link from Lewes Prison where, after he was sentenced, he apologised and said: “I do genuinely feel terrible.”
Miss Bennett said: “This is a very serious offence. It could have ended very differently and it’s fortunate that it did not.
“The offence does seem very out of character for Mr Bridgewater. He was having a mental health crisis.”
Judge Laing said that part of her job was to protect the public and, while his dangerous driving merited a jail sentence, prison would provide only a brief period of protection.
A pre-sentence report said that mental health treatment in the community was available for Bridgewater – and the judge said that this could provide longer-term protection for the public.
The court was told that Bridgewater was currently suspended from his £42,000-a-year job with Brighton and Hove City Council’s rubbish and recycling service.
Judge Laing banned him from driving after telling him: “This was an appalling piece of driving. It’s a road that I know incredibly well.
“Passing the Amex when there is a football match on is incredibly dangerous and everybody has to take care.
“There you were, for reasons that I cannot understand, driving like an absolute lunatic, risking the life of other road users and pedestrians and the police officers as well as Miss Scully.”
The judge imposed a 14-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered Bridgewater to undergo a six-month mental health treatment programme.
She ordered Bridgewater to pay £400 compensation to Miss Scully and to attend 20 days of rehabilitation activity.
Another one living off the taxpayers, does he have any actual qualifications ?? why not jail time, the offence and the damage he caused is what others would be jailed for,
Someone has a mental breakdown and does something a bit stupid and your comment is to poke fun.
End of the day the chap was in a job role a lot of people wouldn’t be able to do. Interesting comment, you sound like a lazy binman he’s probably sacked in the past lol.
Use YOUR TIME wisely, go help your friend, hacking at me and others gets you nothing.
Why make excuses for him? If he’d smashed into your car and injured you so badly that you never walked or worked again would you still make excuses? You write as though you really don’t understand the gravity of what he did. The obvious question is why didn’t he stop when pursued? He lacks good judgement. And mentioning his job makes your judgement look pretty foolish and illogical, too. He should have been fined ten times as much.
Demote him to a street Sweeper?
New job training, work experience, can add to resume when qualified,
that would be quite fun putting him in the department who have to clean up every time the bins don’t get emptied
could have so easily killed someone
should have been 6 months jail at least
he’s was the best there at Brighton and Hove zero missed bins
Boom
Another farce of a sentence. No jail time? What sort message that send out ? Country has gone to pot big time
That’s not what the purpose of jail time is for though; which are for people who are an ongoing risk to society to the point they need to be removed from it. Your next argument is going to be challenging the notion that driving dangerously, which I’m going to counter by reminding you that it’s an acute incident, with mitigating factors, and why the suspended sentence is there, whilst rehabilitation (the most important part) is undertaken.
It is not clear why the Police were chasing him, unless for erratic driving, and it’s not an excuse, but what he did was so insane that if he passed the alcohol and drug tests, I would question what medication he might have been on and the neurological side effects. Some prescribed drugs can have serious neurological side effects including suicide ideation, ironically often for anti-depressants.
Extremely common for a listed side effect of a medication to be the condition that it is aiming to treat.
And in the product description it states quite clear the effects medication can have on driving, working with tools and much more, this guy manages a multi million pound Council unit and supposedly doesn’t know ??? or whatever excuse appears next !!
You are all so incredibly ill informed. I love the way everyone has a comment or opinion about an incident they know nothing about. Almost as much as I love the second rate rag that is Brighton and Hove news. There’s nothing like a well written, balanced article to ensure that the great British public has the benefit of the whole picture. One that doesn’t bother to check the spelling of someone’s surname. The best way to do that of course is by devoting paragraphs to the prosecution angle and a few sentences to the defence. Simply gutter journalism, the purpose of which is to do nothing other than ilicit cretinous, rudiculous responses such as those above.
This person is a kind, gentle, conscientious, hard working person who would never, ever deliberately endanger other road users by driving dangerously. Cleary, I need to point out the obvious which you all seem to have missed. Terry Bridgwater was in the middle of a MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS. He has been ordered to attend mandatory PSYCHIATRY support for 12 months and other therapies. Not a few weeks of talking therpies, but a year of psychiatric support, ordered by a judge. He had been in prison whilst waiting for sentencing. What references are being made to any medication are once again incorrect, ill informed and I and I have no idea what that person is talking about.
The comments you have all posted should not be allowed to be posted on a public forum. They are extremely damaging to an already extremely vulnerable person who is hanging on by a thread.
Well done people. I’m sure that posting your nasty little comnents made you all feel very important. What a shame that none of you know what you are talking about.
Nope, I’m perfectly accurate in what I said about medication, and I’m more than qualified to speak on the subject.
What I described is known as a paradoxical effect. Stan is correct that boxes are clearly labelled, by law, about those that can affect driving or operating heavy machinery, and this is further detailed in the PIL. Those side effects can be heightened during the transition between different medications and different dosages.
But I also align with Stan’s thoughts here as well; the MH label is abused in several aspects. But, if it’s not clear, that’s why I always lean towards rehabilitation and support rather than punitive measures. People are naturally kind and good-natured.
Benjamin, mate. Your comment is gutter talk. You’ve never met the person, know nothing about them and have just read a couple of lines in a newspaper. If your that uneducated on mental health crisis, I would suggest maybe not commenting. To waffle on about what a medicine box says on the outside, wake up man. Are you really that low on the IQ level.
Insults doesn’t discount anything I said, Dave. People do abuse the MH label. I never said at any point that this man was.
Reading is an important skill, Dave. Not the first time you’ve misread something on this website.
Let’s excuse everyone who claims mental health problems when they’ve committed a crime. Your lack of any mention of the poor woman who was a victim of his totally reckless driving shows that you don’t actually have any idea about the so-called balance you say is missing. By your way of thinking nobody at any time would be able to be prosecuted for any crime whatsoever because they just pull out the ‘mental health card’. and we all have to shed tears for the poor souls. You lack basic logic. I don’t think you’d be so liberal if you were in intensive care facing a life of paralysis as a result of his driving, but since you’re not you kid yourself that that wasn’t a possible result when someone is weaving in and out of traffic at 90 mph.
And that’s the difference between mitigation vs absolution, right?
Stan, your comments are extremely uneducated or appalling. A mental breakdown is a very serious thing and I think if someone is in the process of that, the last thing they are worried about is the stupidity that your comments pull up. The idea that someone having a breakdown is actually making a conscious choice in itself is laughable.
Hence the suspended sentence, the guy has no priors and had a well respected job. Which says his character isn’t one to go around breaking laws willingly.
Try reading, it wasn’t his aspect I was commenting, it referenced all those wise mates around him, nodody knew ??. Again, I’m happy for you guys your friend is getting help, stop hacking at me and others, you and yours apparently knew all about his condition, now someone else is paying the price. I think the victim in this aftermath is hard done by, not one of you mention that, they’re still suffering and will be for some time. there is more than you and yours in this story.
So jail won’t help him. Although what he did was dangerous and could have been catastrophic.
But many people going through mental health crises never commit crime and don’t get the support they need, this bloke causes carnage, trauma to another driver who was innocent. And the court don’t send him to prison and offer him mental health support in the community including that it’s compulsory to have the mental health support in his sentencing….
So, Bridgewater will get the support he needs after doing what he did, but the victim and other people out there, who may also be suffering, struggling with their mental health and have never put anyone or commuted any crime, get pushed to the back of the queue with little to nothing.
Who says crime doesn’t pay…!?
It’s a sad reality that the mentally unwell don’t get the best possible care. Often, they cannot advocate for themselves, and sometimes, intervention only happens when a crisis occurs. There’s no emergency mental health service, and paramedics are not trained, nor do they have the legal powers, such as sectioning, to support those currently undergoing crisis. And even if they volunteer to be conveyed, A&E is a triggering environment for many, and often they abscond, and the cycle begins anew.
It’s a very real challenge within the NHS, and really frustrating for clinicians and patients alike.
As I said, ill informed people who don’t know what you’re talking about.
I believe you, despite my comments. One big problem with the mental health issue being brought up when something goes wrong, Nothing was discovered and no-one was aware of his condition until someone else got seriously injured, that alone makes very suspicious reading because the “mental health” gets thrown in the ring at every other criminal case, very often as it happens. That I believe is the main reason people reading this article get very lax about this, not detracting from your friends condition and I hope he gets the help he needs, but people are suspicious and tired of “mental health” issues being used as an excuse to commit crime. Again, i hope he gets well.
By way of conclusion, he was on a waiting list for “urgent” mental health care and assessment which did not transpire in time to prevent a catastrophe. He had visited his GP on numerous occasions and been given various medications which did nothing to help as specialist intervention had long been needed and was long overdue.
It’s a story all too familiar…
@ Dave, you’re comment is out of order, other questions you could ask yourself, why did he have car keys?? how long have you and his family, his boss known about his condition ??? his doctor would have known so why did he still have a licence ?? I’m not blaming anyone but you should not hack at others while YOU and OTHERS apparently known for some time and yet it takes a serious injury on someone else to get some people to react. Your assumptions are wrong that others don’t understand, plenty us do and similar to youself we see things too late, not everyone else is to blame, but now he gets help I hope things improve for him.
To be fair, for the purpose of balance, there are no mental health conditions that automatically disqualify someone from driving.
If a medication affects your ability to drive, the responsibility is on the driver to not drive, but as others have said, if he’s in the middle of crisis, he would not have the capacity to make that choice, so that responsibility is mitigated.
I suspect that this episode and condition will be a consideration as part of the extended retest.
Either way, I share your thoughts, it’s a difficult time for this gentlemen whom others have spoken warmly about. I hope he gets the support he needs, and feels better soon.